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OCT    i.  1919 


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Section       .Ci^'T 


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A  GUIDEBOOK   TO  THE 
BIBLICAL   LITERATURE 


0'{  Wmiee^ 

OCT  18  1919 
%OGICAL  St^^ 


BY 


JOHN  FRANKLIN  GENUNG 

PROFESSOR   OF    LITERARY   AND    BIBLICAL    INTERPRETATION 
AMHERST   COLLEGE 


GINN  AND  COMPANY 

BOSTON  ■  NEW  YORK  •  CHICAGO  •  LONDON 
ATLANTA  •  DALLAS  ■  COLUMBUS  •  SAN  FRANCISCO 


COPYRIGHT,  1916,  1919,  BY 
JOHN  F.  GENUNG 


ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED 
319-7 


(Ebt    S(\)enmum    £reStf 

GlNiN   AND  COMPANY  •  PRO- 
PRIETORS •  BOSTON  ■  U.S.A. 


TO 

GEORGE  FREDERICK  GENUNG 

TWIN  BROTHER 

IN   RECOGNITION   OF  A   LIFETIME   SHARED  WITH   HIM 

IN  THE  FULL  WEALTH  OF  THAT  INTIMATE  RELATION 

BOTH  OF  NATURE  AND  OF  THE  SPIRIT 


PREFACE 

THIS  book  is  meant  to  be  just  what  its  title  names  it  : 
a  guidebook  to  the  Biblical  literature,  not  a  substitute 
for  it.  Its  office  is  subsidiary,  not  principal.  One  does  not 
study  a  guidebook  for  its  own  sake.  The  familiar  little  red- 
covered  volumes  that  deck  the  traveled  man's  shelf  bear 
witness  not  to  erudition  in  that  species  of  literature  but 
to  intimate  memories  and  experiences  wherein  the  useful 
manual  that  pointed  out  the  scene  of  them  is  forgotten. 
So  may  it  fare  with  the  guidebook  herewith  introduced  to 
the  reader.  The  desired  stimulus  of  it,  if  indeed  it  can  lay 
any  claim  to  such  effect,  is  meant  to  be  toward  the  straight 
study  of  the  Bible  itself,  as  one  would  study  a  virgin  object 
of  science,  without  deflection,  without  denial,  without  sur- 
rogate. Its  postulate  is  that  the  Bible,  reverently  and  con- 
structively interrogated,  is  its  own  best  interpreter.  It  bears 
the  same  relation,  accordingly,  to  the  wealth  and  width 
of  the  literature  to  which  it  would  direct  its  readers  that 
Murray  and  Baedeker  bear  to  the  lands  and  cities  and 
treasures  of  their  research  ;  and  its  best  hopes  will  be  met 
if  it  succeeds,  in  some  deserving  measure,  in  placing  them 
at  the  fair  and  free  point  of  view  whence,  surveying  with 
open  eye  the  rich  realm  of  the  Biblical  literature,  they  may 
see  and  know  it  as  it  essentially  is. 

In  essaying,  on  the  scale  and  scope  here  contemplated, 
to  be  a  guide  through  so  vast  a  tract  of  literary  wealth,  the 
author's  most  exacting  problem  has  risen  not  from  the  diffi- 
culty or  abstruseness  of  the  subject  but  from  its  largeness, 
its  sheer  cmbarras  de  nchcsscs.  Here  in  a  single  volume 
is  a  book  covering  the  life   of  many  centuries  which,  as 

[V] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITER ATURE 

Pascal  phrases  it,  was  not  made  by  an  indi\idual  author 
and  dispensed  among  the  people  but  which  itself,  as  it 
emerged  and  grew,  made  the  people  ;  that  is  to  say,  which 
purveyed  for  a  nation  peculiarly  gifted  and  responsive  the 
spiritual  light  and  truth  that  it  needed  for  the  right  uses 
of  life  in  its  successive  homes  and  ages  and  conditions. 
Immense  treasures  of  matter  and  manner  must  needs  be 
noted  and  weighed,  whether  reduced  to  the  scale  of  this 
guidebook  or  not ;  there  is  also  to  be  adjusted  the  ever- 
besetting  tendency,  figured  in  the  old  proverb,  to  miss  the 
forest  for  the  trees.  No  end  of  values  are  there  for  the 
gathering,  each  abundantly  rewarding  after  its  kind.  He 
that  seeketh  findeth,  and  in  so  rich  profusion  that  each 
department  of  research,  once  explored  and  organized,  is 
prone  to  claim  the  monopoly  and  ignore  or  contemn  the 
others.  Hence  the  grim  controversies  that  for  centuries 
have  so  wrought  to  cleave  the  Bible  truth  into  parcels  and 
parties,  —  vehement  screeds  of  doctor  and  saint,  with  their 

"  great  argument 
About  it  and  about,"  — 

controversies  warrantable  enough,  perhaps,  to  myopic  human 
nature,  but  generally  reducible,  for  all  their  solemn  sincerity, 
to  some  phase  of  smallness  of  one-sidedness.  Yet,  even  so, 
they  are  not  to  be  scorned  ;  there  are  shreds  of  truth  at  the 
bottom  of  them  ;  but  neither  are  they  to  be  emulated.  The 
truth  that  is  in  them  may  be  found,  I  am  sure,  in  some 
more  tolerant  way,  some  way  more  consistent  with  comity 
of  spirit  and  aim.  Rut  to  find  it  one  must  ascend  ;  must 
reach  some  point  above,  where  the  tangled  lines  meet  and 
unite.  The  Biblical  literature,  after  all,  does  make  for  plain- 
ness, simplicity,  unity ;  it  requires  only  that  one  shall  find 
the  master-key  and  consistently  use  it.  This  is  why,  as  inti- 
mated above,  I  desiderate  a  fair  and  free  point  of  view : 
fair,  I  mean,  to  all  sides,  all  moods,  all  constituent  factors, 

[vi] 


PREFACE 

free  from  subjective  willfulness  or  torsion.  I  do  not  count 
myself  to  have  attained.  It  would  not  be  safe,  I  imagine, 
for  anyone  to  do  so.  The  quest  is  too  high,  too  far-reaching. 
I  can  only  avow  the  ideal,  and  keep  it  bright,  and  follow 
after.  There  comes  to  me  often  a  remark  of  Matthew 
Arnold's,  made  for  a  similar  though  less  exacting  case  of 
literary  judgment.  "  To  handle  these  matters  properly,"  he 
says,  "'  there  is  needed  a  poise  so  perfect  that  the  least 
overweight  in  any  direction  tends  to  destroy  the  balance. 
Temper  destroys  it,  a  crotchet  destroys  it,  even  erudition 
may  destroy  it.  To  press  to  the  sense  of  the  thing  itself 
with  which  one  is  dealing,  not  to  go  off  on  some  collateral 
issue  about  the  thing,  is  the  hardest  matter  in  the  world.". 
This  may  be  rather  extremely  stated ;  but  the  scholar  may 
well  lay  it  up  in  mind  as  a  self-regulative. 

What  my  desired  point  of  view  specifically  is,  may  per- 
haps be  better  felt,  as  giving  tone  and  color  to  my  whole 
treatment,  than  defined  in  categoric  terms  ;  for  to  call  it 
literary  is  at  once  too  broad  and  too  narrow  to  be  truly 
definitive.  It  is,  to  begin  with,  a  station  in  thought  and 
feeling  where  the  disposition  is  less  to  criticize  than  to 
describe,  less  to  analyze  than  to  enjoy,  less  to  sit  in  judg- 
ment than  simply  to  inquire  and  learn.  In  other  words,  my 
attitude,  if  I  know  myself,  is  purely  and  humbly  construc- 
tive. A  book  of  this  size  and  scale,  I  assume,  cannot  afford 
to  waste  time  in  exploring  culs-dc-sac  or  in  recounting  things 
that  are  not  so.  It  is  enough  to  have  found  these  out ;  to 
make  an  academic  demonstration  of  the  discovery  is  another 
matter.  Accordingly,  I  have  been  content  to  take  the  Scrip- 
ture text  as  it  is,  in  its  latest  and  presumably  most  definitive 
edition,  with  more  regard  to  the  time  it  fits  than  to  the  time 
in  which  it  was  conjecturally  written  ;  content  also  to  assume 
that  the  Biblical  literature  was  the  product  not  of  vague  ten- 
dencies and  movements  merely  but  of  real  personal  authors 
who,  whether  one  is  able  to  call  their  names  or  not,  were 

[vii] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

what  Professor  Godet  assumes  of  the  Gospel  writers,  "men 
of  good  sense  and  good  faith."  This  brings  me  to  the  most 
cherished  center  of  my  point  of  view.  It  has  been  my  en- 
deavor to  place  myself  by  the  side  of  each  Scripture  author, 
as  if  his  literary  task  were  also  mine  ;  to  learn  his  mind, 
share  in  his  conception  and  aim,  feel  the  intimate  throb  of 
his  personal  temperament  and  style.  This  for  one  factor 
of  realization ;  there  is  also  its  inseparable  complement  to 
reckon  with.  An  author  implies  an  audience.  We  must 
needs  appreciate  their  point  of  view,  as  well  as  that  of  their 
poets  and  teachers.  Our  quest  accordingly  must  enlarge 
itself  to  take  in  the  mind  of  a  people  or  of  an  era  which 
could  respond  intelligently,  whether  in  sympathy  or  reaction, 
to  the  kind  of  literature  under  consideration  ;  for  a  book  is 
not  a  cloistered  thing,  it  reflects,  it  is  intimately  involved 
with,  its  age.  This  is  where  the  expository  and  the  his- 
torical come  into  collaboration.  In  other  words,  with  the 
study  of  the  literature  itself  must  be  combined  a  study  of 
the  people  whom  the  literature  fits  ;  and  so  our  research 
must  correspond  in  some  degree  to  what  the  Germans  call 
Culturgesckichtc,  a  history  of  a  people's  culture,  as  this  is 
reflected  in  the  literary  productions  that  have  survived 
from  the  successive  periods  of  its  historical  experience. 
To  the  exactions  of  the  point  of  view  must  be  added  the 
claims  of  balance,  perspective,  proportion  ;  else  there  is  the 
besetting  liability,  as  phrased  above,  to  leave  the  core  of 
the  thing  itself  for  "some  collateral  issue  about  the  thing." 
And,  first  of  all,  it  is  worth  while  to  note,  in  the  present 
stage  of  Biblical  research,  that  it  makes  a  good  deal  of 
difference  whether  one  studies  the  literature  for  the  sake 
of  the  history  or  the  history  for  the  sake  of  the  literature. 
Both  objects,  of  course,  are  legitimate  and  laudable  ;  they 
connote,  however,  quite  divergent  interests  and  results, 
which  ought  to  be  fairly  discriminated.  I  have  pursued  the 
latter  because  my  taste  leads  mc  to  lay  the  stress  rather 

.[viii] 


PREFACE 

on  present  spiritual  values — which  is  to  say  the  values  that 
have  made  the  literature  Biblical  —  than  on  values  which 
appeal  predominantly  to  antiquarian  interests.  But  the  same 
emphasis  which  makes  history  the  second  interest  and  not 
the  first  also,  when  rightly  distributed,  puts  into  proper  sub- 
ordination the  multitude  of  facts  and  guesses  which  are  so 
apt  to  clamor  for  more  than  their  due.  Many  a  true  thing 
may  be  insignificant,  or  only  remotely  relevant  if  at  all. 
Especially  on  the  size  and  scale  of  this  book,  such  things 
may  merit  only  casual  mention,  or  indeed  sink  beneath  the 
surface  into  silence.  Accordingly,  I  have  given  compara- 
tively little  relative  stress  to  some  things  that  have  bulked 
large  in  the  higher  criticism,  things  like  documentary  theo- 
ries, editorial  additions  or  glosses,  conjectural' sources,  and 
the  like  ;  while  I  have  almost  entirely  ignored  the  clatter 
and  clutter  of  corrupt  readings,  scribal  blunders,  dislocations, 
discrepancies,  and  in  general  the  pettinesses  of  destructive 
or  sceptical  criticism,  —  things  which  do  not  belong  to  the 
scale  and  scope  of  this  book,  and  which,  when  projected 
on  the  background  of  the  large  Biblical  theme,  can  elicit 
only  the  doubtful  query,  "Well,  what  of  it.''"  When  the 
final  claims  of  Biblical  values  are  made  up,  many  things 
that  are  first  shall  be  last ;  it  will  do  no  harm  to  weigh 
and  discount  that  possibility,  or  in  other  words  to  sense  the 
proportions  and  relations  of  things. 

All  this,  however,  brings  us  only  as  far  as  the  outworks 
of  our  real  quest ;  the  heart  of  the  matter  begins  here,  and 
no  teacher  or  guidebook  can  impart  it.  It  is  a  fallacy  to 
assume,  whatever  we  think  of  inspiration,  that  we  are  deaHng 
with  a  literature  like  ever)'  other  ;  we  miss  a  cardinal  factor 
if  we  do,  and  our  study  is  sterilized  thereby.  This  is  a  liter- 
ature unique.  It  holds  perpetual  commerce  with  the  unseen 
and  the  divine,  while  also  its  feet  are  firmly  on  the  earth 
moving  among  men's  intimate  affairs.  It  is  Biblical.  It  is 
a  thing  to  be  learned,  as  it  were,  by  heart  rather  than  by 

[ix] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

rote.  And  the  heart  has  its  own  means  of  recognition. 
Contemplating  the  majestic  evolution  and  coordination  of 
the  Biblical  theme  until  in  one  unitary  body  of  literature  it 
has  recorded  a  universe  of  experiences  and  relations  wherein 
the  divine  and  the  human  natures  meet  and  blend,  the 
sincere  heart  is  aware  of  what  Virgil  felt  in  the  universe 
of  nature  :  — 

"  Spiritus  intus  alit,  totamque  infusa  per  artus 
Mens  agitat  molem  et  magno  se  corpore  miscet ;  — " 

or  to  use  Burke's  noble  paraphrase  :  "the  spirit  .  .  .  which, 
infused  through  the  mighty  mass,  pervades,  feeds,  unites,  in- 
vigorates, vivifies  every  part,  .  .  .  even  down  to  the  minutest 
member."  That  is  our  true,  our  only  adequate  objective  — 
the  spirit  within.  I  do  not  insist  on  a  theological  or  mysti- 
cal name  for  it ;  that  is  for  the  reader's  experience  to  verify. 
One  gets  the  spirit  of  a  book  not  by  logic  or  memory  but 
by  a  kindred  response  to  its  inherent  appeal.  So  with  this 
Biblical  literature.  The  Open  Sesame  is  not  merely  the 
academic  or  dogmatic  or  even  pietistic  spirit,  but  the  strong 
pervasive  spirit  of  the  Book  itself.  With  this  as  the  inner 
key  the  Book  is  its  own  best  interpreter ;  and  the  reflex 
of  that  spirit,  in  fitting  proportion  and  degree,  is  the  best 
illuminant  of  the  collateral  and  ancillary  issues  that  are 
involved  with  it. 

The  version  of  the  Bible  used  as  the  source  of  quotation 
and  reference  throughout  this  guidebook,  except  in  some 
specified  cases,  is  the  American  Standard  Revision  of  1901. 

JOHN  FRANKLIN  GENUNG 
Amherst,  Massachusetts 


[x] 


CONTENTS 

PAG  IS 

A  Preliminary  Survey 3-24 

I.  The  Bible  as  a  Literature 4 

II.  The  Bible  as  a  Library 12 

III.  The  Bible  as  a  Book 21 

BOOK  I.  THE  FORMATIVE  CENTURIES 

Chapter  I.    Semina  Litterarum 29-76 

I.   The  Hebrew  Mind 29 

I.  The  Genius  of  a  Race 31 

II.  The  Dominant  Aptitude 37 

II.   The  Hebrew  Heritage      . 39 

I.  The  Allotted  Land 42 

II.  The  Inherited  Fund  of  Ideas 46 

III.    Before  the  Age  of  Books 56 

I.  Literary  Fragments  and  Remainders 58 

II.   The  Native  Mold  of  Literary  Form 64 

III.   Avails  and  Deceits  of  the  Pre-Literary  Times     ...  72 

Chapter  II.    Awaking  of  the  Literary  Sense    .     .     .    77-96 

I.   The  Quickened  National  Self-Consciousness      ...  78 

II.    Initiative  in  Two  Gifted  Kings 80 

I.   David's  Part  in  the  Literary  Awakening         .      .     .      .  81 

II.   Solomon's  Relation  to  Literature 83 

III.    Evolution  of  Literary  Types  and  Functions      ...  86 

I.  The  Lyric  Strain,  General  and  Sacred 87 

II.   The  Wisdom  Strain,  and  the  Sages 92 

[xi] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

PACES 

Chapter  III.    Looking  Before  and  After     ....    97-132 

I.   One  People  in  Two  Kingdoms 98 

I.  Traits  and  Tendencies  in  the  Two 99 

II.  Resultant  Literary  Situation 

II.    Looking  Before  —  Beginnings  of  Historical  Writing 

I.   Order  of  Historical  Composition 

II.  Two  Main  Lines  of  Source  Story 

III.  How  these  were  Supplemented 

IV.  Treatment  of  Myth  and  Legend    ....... 

III.    Looking  After  —  Begi.nnings  of   Literary   Prophecy 

I.   Oracles  Tribal  and  Racial 

II.   Evolution  of  the  Prophetic  Order 123 

III.   Era  of  Prophetic  Masters  and  Guilds 129 


Chapter  IV.    The  Stress  of  Prophecy      ....       133- 

I.    The  Impending  Crisis 

I.  Tne  Broad  Historical  Situation 

II.  Rising  to  the  Occasion 

III.  The  Forecast  in  Joel 

II.   In  the  Northern  Kingdom 

I.  Amos,  and  his  Prophecy  of  Judgment 

II.   Hosea,  and  his  Sense  of  Outraged  Love      .... 

III.    In  the  Southern  Kingdom 

I.  A  Postponement  of  Doom 

II.   Micah,  Prophet  of  the  Countryside 

HI.   Isaiah  of  Jerusalem      ...  

IV.  The  Crisis  Met  and  Weathered 


Chapter  V.    After  the  Reprieve 186-247 

I.    Men  of  Insight  at  Work 188 

I.  Isaiah's  Vision  of  Destiny 189 

II.   Stimulus  of  a  Royal  Patron 194 

III.  Treasures  from  the  Older  Literature 196 

II.    On  the  Eve  ok  National  Transplantation  ....  204 

I.   Prophets  of  the  Dies  Iras 208 

II.  The  Book  Found  in  the  Temple 22c 

III.  Jeremiah:   the  Man  and  the  Crisis      .           ....  228 

[.xiij 


CONTENTS 
BOOK  II.   THE  PEOPLE  OF  A  BOOK 

PAGES 

Chapter  VI.    Literary  Fruits  of  the  Exile     .     .      254-369 

I.  Literary  Activities  in  Chaldea 257 

I.  Ezekiel :   Pastor  and  Reconstructor 257 

II.  Daniel :  Mage,  and  Revealer  at  Court 278 

III.  Second  Isaiah  :  Finisher  of  the  Vision 300 

II.  The  Literature  of  Reestablishment  in  the  Holy 

Land 337 

I.  Prophets  of  the  Rebuilt  Temple     .......  340 

II.  The  Subsidence  of  Prophecy 352 

Chapter  VII.    The  Puritan  Era  and  its  Literature    370-425 

I.  The  Initiative  from  Babylon 372 

I.   Post-Exilic  Men  of  Letters  and  their  Work       ,     .     .  373 

II.  Ezra:   Scribe  and  Scholar 379 

II.  Legalism  and  its  Austerities 3°S 

I.  The  Jewish  Mind  and  Mood 385 

II.  The  Completed  Pentateuch 391 

III.  The  Later  Cultus  Literature 403 

III.  Reactions  and  Alleviations 4^4 

I.  Veiled  Signs  of  Reaction  and  Protest 416 

II.  While  the  Big  Book  is  Growing 424 

Chapter  VIII.    Treasury  of  the  Choice  Hebrew 

Classics 426-520 

I.  Traits  of  the  Collection  as  a  Whole 427 

II.  The  Three  Great  Classics 432 

I.  The -Five  Books  of  Psalms -432 

II.  Proverbs:   Garnered  Counsel  from  the  Wise     .     .     .  448 

III.  Job:  Crucial  Test  of  the  Heart  of  Man 463 

III.  The  Five  Megilloth 4^2 

I.  Uses  and  Estimates  of  the  Group 482 

II.  Traits  of  the  Individual  Books 485 

IV.  On  the  Literary  Frontier 5'° 

I.  The  Visioned  and  the  Settled 511 

II.  The  Pause  between  the  Testaments 517 

[  xiii  ] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 
BOOK  III.    THE  PEOPLE  OF  THE  WAY 

PAGES 

Chapter  IX.    The  Son  of  Man 526-581 

I.  Expectation  and  Answer 527 

1.  The  Prophetic  Herald 530. 

H.  The  Old  Order  Changes 534 

HI.   Initiating  the  Christ-Idea 537 

II.  The  Literary  Element  in  Jesus'  Ministry      ....  543 

I.   His  General  Public  Utterances 544 

II.   His  Teaching  in  Parables 548 

III.  His  Encounters  with  Human  Falsity 554 

IV.  His  Utterances  in  Divine  Character 558 

V.  His  Acts  in  Divine  Character 562 

III.  Bearing  Witness  to  the  Truth 565 

I.   The  Great  Confession  and  its  Sequel 567 

II.   Reckoning  on  Departure 571 

III.   Rounding  Off  the  Earthly  Ministry 577 

Chapter  X.    The  Literature  of  Fact 582-607 

I.  The  Apostles  and  their  Initial  Message 583 

I.  Their  Fitting  Kind  of  Work 585 

II.   Four  Phases  of  the  First  Apostolic  Message     .     .     .  588 

II.  The  Growth  ok  the  Synoptic  Gospels 591 

I.  The  Germinating  Time 592 

II.  Source-Gospels  and  Logia 594 

III.  The  Synoptic  Gospels  as  Completed 598 

III.  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles 604 

I.  As  Continuation  of  a  Prior  History 604 

II.  As  Related  to  the  Planting  of  Christianity  ....  605 

Chapter  XL    The  Literature  of  Values      .     .     .       608-654 

I.  Literary  Gifts  and  Medium  of  Puhlication  •      .     .      .  611 

I.  The  Writers  and  their  Qualifications 611 

II.  The  Epistle  Form  and  its  Uses 613 

II.  Saint  Paul  as  Orator  and  Letter  Writer    ....  615 

I.  Saint  Paul  the  Man 616 

II.  Saint  Paul  the  Orator 620 

[xiv] 


CONTENTS 

PAGES 

III.  Letters  of  the  Active  Missionary         ..'....  623 

IV.  Letters  of  the  Roman  Prisoner 628 

III.  From  Jewish  to  Christian  Idiom 633 

I.   Hebrews,  and  the  Fulfillment  of  Types 634 

II.  James,  and  the  Wisdom  from  Above 636 

III.  Epistles  from  Jesus'  Personal  Circle 63d 

IV.  The  Legacy  of  the  Beloved  Disciple 641 

I.  Who  was  the  Beloved  Disciple? 641 

II.  The  Story  Told  Once  More 645 

III.  The  "  Postscript  Commendatory" 651 

Chapter  XII.    The  Resurgence  of  Prophecy   .     .      655-677 

I.  Toward  the  End  of  the  Era 659 

I.  The  Presage  in  Jesus'  Words 660 

II.   In  the  Light  of  Common  Day 663 

II.  The  Revelation  of  John 664 

I.  The  Apocalyptic  Warrant 665 

II.   Its  Symbolism,  Inherited  and  Initiated 668 

III.  The  Reality  within  the  Symbol 673 

Index 679 


[XV 


A  GUIDEBOOK  TO  THE 
BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 


For  worthy  deeds  are  not  often  destitute  of  worthy  relaters,  as  by  a  cer- 
tain Fate  great  Acts  and  great  Eloquence  have  most  commonly  gone  hand 
in  hand,  equalling  and  honoring  each  other  in  the  same  Ages. —  Milton 

These  people  have  a  secret ;  .  .  .  they  have  discerned  the  way  the  world 
was  going,  and  therefore  they  have  prevailed. —  Matthew  Arnold 


[^1 


A  GUIDEBOOK  TO  THE 
BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

A  PRELIMINARY  SURVEY 

AFTER  a  lifelong  conversance  with  literature,  in  which 
L  field  he  did  the  world  great  service  and  nobly  wore 
himself  out,  Sir  Walter  Scott,  in  his  last  illness,  requested 
his  son-in-law  Lockhart  to  read  to  him.  When  asked  from* 
what  book,  he  replied,  "  Need  you  ask  ?  There  is  but  one." 
And  Lockhart  read  to  him  from  the  Bible. 

This  tribute  of  a  modern  author  to  the  venerable  volume 
was  not  his  alone.  Nor  did  it  express,  as  some  would  read 
it,  either  a  sudden  vivid  conviction  or  a  sick  man's  sense  of 
last  resort.  It  was  the  world's  tribute,  rendered  long  ago 
and  reenforced  by  ages  of  ripened  experience  ;  expressing 
the  general  judgment  that  here,  of  all  books,  is  the  one 
supremely  great,  the  one  that  none  others  can  supplant  or 
emulate,  the  one  embodying  the  essential  values  of  all  the 
rest.  This  idea  is  implicit  in  the  name  that  soon  after  its 
completion  was  given  to  it :  The  Bible,  —  not  a  specific  title 
at  all,  for  it  means  simply  The  Book.  The  epithet  Holy, 
which  was  quite  generally  added  to  the  name,  is  of  the  same 
implication,  expressing  as  it  does  its  separateness  from  and 
superiority  to  all  other  books. 

The  ternri  The  Bible,  from  the  Greek  ta  hiblia,  meaning 
originally  "the  booklets,"  or  "little  books"  (more  strictly 
What's  in  "  little  papers,"  for  biblos  was  the  Greek  word  for 
the  Name  papyrus),  rccognizes  the  volume  before  us  as  a 
body  of  literature  distributed  in  a  collection  of  smaller  works ; 


GUIDEBOOi  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

which  it  obviously  is.   Thc£>  works,  however,  though  diverse, 
are  not  fortuitous  or  miscellaipous  but  of  a  selected  and 
classified  character ;  wherefore  thtvolume,  as  now  made  up, 
is  often  spoken  of  as  a  sacred  canon  or  library.    The  name 
"bible  "  was  not  given  to  the  collection  urtil  the  selecting  and 
amassing  of  the  booklets,  in  both  Old  and  i>,\\  Testaments, 
was  virtually  or  quite   complete ;    and   soon  tiereafter  the 
word,  originally  a  plural,  was  understood  and  construed  as  a 
singular.    Thus  out  of  the  sense  of  diversity  grew  ihe  sense 
of  unity  and  comprehensiveness.    The  name  crystalliies  the 
book's    history.     Beginning   with    the    most    unpreter/ding 
claims,    making  its   way  by  its   intrinsic    worth,   not    com- 
pelling assent   but   winning  it,   the   Bible    has   established 
'itself  by  its  broad  and  varied  scope,  its  homogeneity,  and 
its  developed  unity  of  theme,  as  the  world's  supreme  classic. 
In  such  comprehensive  scope  it  calls  for  appraisal  to-day. 
The  Bible  is  at  once,  and  in  equally  true  sense  of  all  three 
distinctions  :  a  literature,  a  library,  and  a  book. 

Note,  //s  Designations.  It  was  about  the  middle  of  the  second 
century  A.D.  that  the  name  "Bible"  was  generally  adopted;  and  the 
word  seems  to  have  changed  from  plural  to  singular  in  its  transition 
from  Greek  to  Latin.  The  name  given  in  the  Bible  itself  to  the  col- 
lection of  sacred  writings  (comprising  the  Old  Testament  series)  is 
s'pharim,  books;  see  for  instance,  Dan.  ix,  2 :  "I,  Daniel,  understood 
by  the  books,"  among  which  he  specifies  the  prophecy  of  Jeremiah. 
The  New  Testament  writers  speak  of  the  Old  Testament  books  as 
hai  gi'aphai,  the  writings  (Latin  scripturcr)-^  see,  for  instance,  Acts 
xvii,  1 1  :  "  examining  the  scriptures  {fas  grap/ias)  daily,"  where  the 
body  of  Old  Testament  literature  is  meant. 

I 

The  Bible  as  a  Literature.  As  a  gradually  accumulated 
deposit  of  literary  works  the  Bible  coincides,  in  time  and  in 
progress  of  ideas,  with  the  national  history  of  a  people  of 
Semitic  origin  inhabiting  the  small  land  of  Palestine,  at  the 
eastern  end  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  and  called  at  successive 

[4] 


A  PRELIMINARY  SURVEY 

stages  of  their  history  Hebrews,  Israehtes,  and  Jews.  During 
this  race's  unique  national  experience  this  hterature,  as  put 
into  form  by  its  poets,  sages,  historians,  and  prophets,  embod- 
ied its  sanest  thinking  and  far-reaching  ideals  ;  was  -in  fact 
the  education  and  making  of  that  peculiarly  gifted  people. 

The  basis  of  this  literatwre,  its  underlying  tissue,  is  his- 
toric and  prophetic.  That  is  to  say,  nearly  all  the  works 
preserved  to  us  are  pretty  directly  concerned  with  this 
people's  national  experience  ;  not  indeed  in  the  mere  annal- 
istic  or  political  sense,  but  as  discerning  its  inner  meanings, 
as  related  to  the  elemental  claims  of  God  and  duty  and 
destiny.  This  it  is  which  gives  the  literature  its  hold  on 
succeeding  times  and  peoples  ;  for  of  all  ancient  races  the 
Hebrew  race  was  preeminent  for  the  depth,  the  clearness, 
and  the  intensity  of  its  spiritual  intuitions.  Its  numerous 
writers,  whoever  they  were,  had  in  large  and  like  degree  the 
poet's  and  prophet's  endowment  of 

such  large  discourse, 
Looking  before  and  after  ; 

and  this  was  their  undying  gift  to  humanity. 
,  The  literature  surviving  to  us  in  the  Bible  covers,  in  its 
composition,  a  period  from  about  1250  b.c.^  to  about 
In  its  His-  lOO  A.D.  In  its  literary  development  this  long 
toric  Setting  period  falls  naturally  into  three  stages,  which  in 
our  present  study  are  considered  in  three  books. 

Note.  The  Starting  Point.  This  period  of  about  1350  years  is 
reckoned  from  the  Song  of  Deborah,  Judges  v,  perhaps  the  earliest 
literary  piece  which  as  a  whole  can  be  taken  as  contemporaneous  with 
its  event,  to  the  completion  of  the  Gospels,  which  may  be  put  at  about 
100  A.I).  The  Song  of  Miriam  at  the  Red  Sea,  Exod.  xv,  is  in  part 
as  old  as  its  event,  and  there  are  other  early  fragments  which  will  be 
noted  in  their  place ;  but  the  Song  of  Deborah  makes  a  convenient 
starting  point  alike  in  history  and  in  literature,  from  which  we  can 
reckon  both  backwards  and  forwards. 

^  For  the  dates  in  Old  Testament  chronology  I  follow  mostly  those 
given  in  Kautszch's  "'  Literature  of  the  Old  Testament." 

[5] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

1.  Its  earliest  works,  which  we  read  as  quoted  bits  of 
song  and  parable  more  or  less  fragmentary,  embedded  in  its 
later  compiled  history,  date  from  a  time  when  the  Hebrew 
people,  newly  delivered  from  Egyptian  bondage,  were  strug- 
gling for  foothold  and  independence  in  the  land  of  Canaan. 
With  the  organization  of  the  nx)narchy  under  David  and 
Solomon  a  corresponding  literary  impulse  w'as  awakened, 
which,  increasing  in  breadth,  diffusion,  and  conscious  art, 
followed  the  fortunes  of  the  state  through  the  rise  and 
decline  of  the  two  kingdoms  of  Israel  and  Judah,  deter- 
mined the  various  lines  of  literary  utterance  and  form,  and 
reached  the  vigor  of  its  formative  period  at  about  the  time 
of  the  Chaldean  exile,  in  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century 
before  Christ.  It  is  during  this  period  that  the  literature 
interacts  most  intimately  with  the  history  of  the  nation. 
We  have  named  this  period  "The  Formative  Centuries." 

2.  Through  the  subsequent  centuries  of  life  under  foreign 
dominance,  until  the  coming  of  Christ,  during  which  period 
the  national  interest  subsisted  largely  on  the  glories  of  its 
past,  the  activities  of  men  of  letters  were  directed  to  com- 
piling, revising,  and  completing  the  works  which  the  pre- 
exilic  period  had  as  it  were  left  in  the  rough  ;  molding 
them  into  more  matured  and  self-conscious  literary  forms ; 
and  coordinating  them  into  a  canon  for  educational  and 
devotional  uses.  In  this  period  the  prophet  and  creative 
historian  is  succeeded  by  the  scholar  and  scribe.  Its  liter- 
ary evolution  is  traced  under  the  name  "  The  People  of  a 
Book  "  ;  the  book  in  question  being  the  Old  Testament, 
as  a  collection  of  laws,  prophecies,  histories,  poems,  and 
didactic  precepts. 

3.  With  the  Old  Testament,  the  Jewish  canon,  the  Bib- 
lical literature  of  a  race  is  closed,  but  it  contains  many  inti- 
mations of  unfinality  and  presages  of  a  larger  consummation. 
The  new  era  opens,  seventy  years  before  the  break-up  of  the 
Jewish  state,  with  the  coming  of  Jesus.    Then  later,  under 

[6] 


A  PRELIMINARY  SURVEY 

the  vitalizing  power  of  his  ministry  and  personaHty,  a  new 
Hterature  gradually  rises,  related  to  the  old  as  fulfillment  to 
promise,  as  realization  to  hope  and  symbol ;  a  literature 
which  from  Jewish  and  ethnical  becomes  Christian  and 
universal.  Thus  out  of  the  literature  of  a  race  is  developed 
the  literature  of  humanity,  which  all  races  and  ages  can 
appropriate.  The  latest  works  of  this  new  type  of  utterance 
date  from  about  a  generation  after  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem and  the  downfall  of  the  Jewish  state,  which  event 
occurred  a.d.  70.  We  consider  this  period  under  the  name 
"The  People  of  the  Way," 

At  every  stage,  until  the  coming  of  Jesus,  the  Biblical 
literature  is  closely  inwoven  with  national  and  race  affairs  ; 
a  running  accompaniment  of  Hebrew  history,  especially  of 
its  wider  and  more  imaginative  stage  called  Israelite,  en- 
forcing its  spiritual  values  for  present  and  future.  After 
Jesus'  coming  it  ignores  the  affairs  of  state,  being  concerned 
with  the  facts  and  values  of  the  new  order  which,  through 
his  ministry  and  the  activities  of  his  apostles,  is  gaining 
foothold  and  power  in  the  larger  world.  The  ideas  of  this 
new  Christian  order  it  not  only  sets  forth  in  their  own 
intrinsic  light  but  coordinates  at  every  step  with  the  values 
that  the  past  through  its  history  and  culture  has  revealed. 

The  fact  that  this  body  of  hterature  has  so  laid  hold  on 
the  universal  heart  of  man  as  to  have  become  the  Bible,  the 
I  t  T  h  ^"^^^'"^d  book  of  counsel  and  authority  for  the 
with  Nations  most  enlightened  nations  of  the  world,  and  to 
and  imes  have  been,  as  it  still  is,  a  main  factor  of  their 
greatness,  rouses  inquiry  as  to  what  causes  could  have  been 
great  enough  to  produce  so  immense  an  effect.  The  thought 
of  the  factors  concerned  in  it  —  land,  history,  people  — 
yields  at  first  consideration  only  a  sense  of  discrepancy.  It 
was  a  small  and  sequestered  land,  a  dim  and  out-of-the-way 
history,  a  people  quite  undistinguished  for  arts  or  learning, 
and  never  great  in  conquest  or  statecraft.   To  explain  the 

[7] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

power  of  their  literature  much  has  been  made,  and  rightly, 
of  divine  superintendence  and  inspiration.  But  the  divine 
accommodates  itself  to  human  methods  and  means,  and 
these  we  can  measure.  And  if  these  in  themselves  do  not 
suffice  to  fill  out  the  solution,  we  can  at  least  note  what  part 
they  play  and  what  points  they  reach  in  the  problem. 

To  gauge  so  tremendous  an  effect,  however,  we  must  take 
in  a  somewhat  commensurate  scope  of  historic  and  spiritual 
forces.  The  Biblical  literature  was  secreted  from  many  cen- 
turies of  time,  and  interacted  with  the  most  spacious  human 
issues.  Its  power  to  naturalize  itself  among  all  peoples  and 
ages  was  well  and  truly  earned.  How  this  was,  let  a  few 
words  of  summary  attempt  to  show. 

The  land  from  which  we  get  the  Bible  was  indeed  small  ; 
"the  least  of  all  lands"  it  has  been  called;  but  being  just 
at  the  meeting-place  of  three  continents,  and  traversed  by 
the  main  international  routes  of  travel,  traffic,  and  war,  it 
was  for  the  play  of  historic  forces  focal  and  pivotal.  No 
other  ancient  land  was  so  favorably  situated  to  be  the  labora- 
tory for  the  working  out  of  a  world  purpose.^  The  period 
covered  by  the  literature  may  be  described  in  the  large  as 
that  millennium  of  antiquity  which  witnessed  the  evolution 
of  a  world  order  out  of  primitive  chaos  and  anarchy.  It  was 
that  momentous  era  during  which,  as  in  a  huge  melting-pot, 
multitudes  of  turbulent  tribes  with  their  warring  gods  and 
confused  religions  were  first  gradually  subdued  in  the  rude 
unity  of  great  unwieldy  monarchies,  —  Kgypt,  Assyria,  Baby- 
lonia, Persia,  Greece,  —  and  eventually,  through  the  organ- 
izing genius  of  the  Romans,  amalgamated  in  a  world-wide 
merger  of  empire.     It  was,  in  other  words,  the  embryotic 

^  "  Palestine  was,  in  a  very  real  sense,  the  physical  centre  of  those 
movements  of  history  from  which  the  modern  world  has  grown."  — 
\V.  R.  Smith,  "  Prophets  of  the  Old  Testament,"  p.  338.  "  The  Jewish  and 
Christian  Scriptures  had  their  origin  ...  at  the  meeting-place  of  the  great 
tides  of  human  thought,  the  centuries-long  interchange  of  experience  and 
ideas."  —  Geden,  "  Introduction  to  the  Hebrew  Bible,"  p.  353. 

[8] 


A  PRELIMINARY  SURVEY 

period  in  the  birth  of  a  general  human  civilization.  The 
same  period,  in  its  fitting  time,  witnessed  the  rise  and 
diffusion  of  Greek  arts  and  culture,  the  spread'  of  com- 
merce, and  the  opening  comity  of  racial  intercourse.  Thus 
all  around  this  little  land  of  Palestine,  as  well  as  within  it, 
a  field  was  being  prepared  and  spiritual  forces  were  con- 
centrating themselves  as  if  toward  the  fulfillment  of  some 
vast  design. 

And  there  at  the  center  of  things,  involved  with  the  rest, 
dwelt  a  peculiarly  gifted  people,  who  as  monarchy  succeeded 
monarchy  came  successively  into  intimate  relations  with 
them  all ;  not  indeed  as  a  conquering  or  favored  people, 
but  rather  as  tributary  and  despised,  yet  distinguished  from 
others  by  the  intrinsic  superiority  of  their  spiritual  insight 
and  their  educated  conscience.  This  set  them  apart  by 
themselves,  as  had  indeed  been  prophesied  of  them,  — 

Lo,  it  is  a  people  that  dwelleth  alone, 

And  shall  not  be  reckoned  among  the  nations  (Num.  xxiii,  9),  — 

and  yet  by  that  higher  spiritual  endowment  gave  them  func- 
tion and  mission  as  a  central  repository  of  religious  light  and 
moral  law  for  the  guidance  of  all  nations.  Of  this  distinc- 
tion their  foremost  prophets  became  aware  and  deduced 
its  ideal  before  their  captivity  and  dispersion;^  the  ideal 
became  real  only  through  the  consummation  afforded  by 
the  greatest  personage  of  their  history,  Jesus  Christ. 

As  a  nation  planted  in  the  midst  among  other  and  more 
powerful  ones,  and  later  as  a  people  dispersed  abroad  and 
tributary  at  home,  the  Israelites  were  exposed  successively 
to  the  influence  of  all  the  great  civilizations  of  the  ancient 
world  ;  meeting  each,  too,  just  when  its  power  was  in  its 
prime.  This  contact  doubtless  did  much  to  enlarge  and 
liberalize  their  own  religious  culture ;  made  them  to  a  de- 
gree receptive  of  ideas  on   which   they  and   other  nations 

1  Cf.  Isa.  ii,  2-4. 
[9] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

could  occupy  common  ground.  It  is  to  be  observed,  how- 
ever, that  most  of  this  exposure  to  the  larger  world  came 
when  the  Hebrew  religious  idea  was  well  matured ;  at  the 
height  of  the  formative  centuries,  when  the  nation  could 
measure  its  spiritual  stamina  with  that  of  its  conquerors. 
Here  its  loyalty  to  race  and  sound  tradition  prevailed.  It 
made  the  people's  attitude  reactive  and  self-reliant ;  kept 
them  from  being  merged  with  others  ;  gave  sharpness  and 
contour  to  the  ideas  which  they  had  inherited  from  their 
fathers.  They  had  greater  literary  values  to  give  than  to 
receive.  And  the  fact  of  survival,  intact  and  purified,  while 
the  chaotic  cults  and  creeds  of  other  nations  went  under, 
proves  the  master  power  that  the  Hebrew  literature  pos- 
sessed. It  was  like  the  clearness  and  reasonableness  and 
sanity  after  which  the  confused  myths  and  rites  of  other 
nations  had  been  groping.  Such  was  the  foundation  that 
the  Old  Testament  literature  laid  for  the  later  Christian 
structure  represented  in  the  literature  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. It  was  the  vehicle  of  a  spiritual  force  which  had 
emerged  from  the  dimness  of  prehistoric  times  ;  which 
had  gathered  head  through  generations  of  educative  and 
prophetic  leading  ;  until,  when  its  mission  was  ripe,  it  was 
ready  to  precipitate  its  power  into  the  mind  of  the  world. 
Thus  it  fitted,  as  by  a  divine  wisdom  and  purpose,  into 
the  providentially  ordered  movements  of  world  history. 

The  sacredness  with  which  the  Bible  has  been  invested, 
owing  to  the  conviction  that  it  is  an  inspired  revelation  from 
In  its  Liter-  God,  has  in  time  past  had  the  effect  of  removing 
ary  Quality  [i  from  common  handling  and  putting  it  in  a 
class  by  itself.  No  other  book  has  had  such  usage  as  has" 
befallen  it.  It  has  been  approached  with  trembling  caution 
as  if  it  were  a  "live  wire";  has  been  believed  indiscrimi- 
nately, as  if  its  every  statement  were  an  oracle ;  has  been 
used  for  divination,  like  the  series  Virgiliance ;  has  been 
forced  upon  men  arbitrarily,  as  a  book  of  despotic  dogma  ; 

[lo] 


A  PRELIMINARY  SURVEY 

has  been  made  the  court  of  final  appeal  not  only  in  matters 
of  faith  and  character  but  in  history  and  natural  science. 
All  this  makes  it  harder  to  approach  the  Bible  in  the  candid 
good  faith  which  we  accord  to  other  books.  But  its  original 
utterances  were  never  so  intended.  It  is  not  esoteric.  It 
does  not  deal  in  mysteries  and  enigmas.  It  invites  candor 
and  verification.  It  uses  the  speech  of  common  men,  and 
moves  in  the  everyday  relations  of  life.  It  appeals,  like  all 
other  books,  to  the  verdict  of  reason  and  sound  intuition. 
In  a  word,  it  is  a  literature,  with  all  the  marks  and  moods 
of  human  literature.  As  a  human  literature  it  uses  the 
means  and  methods  of  literary  art ;  it  is  subject  also  to 
human  varieties  and  limitations  of  knowledge  and  insight 
and  skill.  As  the  representative  literature  of  a  race,  tod,  it 
has  a  tone  and  temperament  of  its  own,  the  reflection  of 
that  race's  mind  and  heart. 

It  is  only  in  comparatively  recent  years  that  the  Bible 
has  been  studied  frankly  as  a  literature,  or  associated  with 
such  traits  of  style  and  invention  as  are  recognized  in  other 
books.  It  has  been  taken  as  a  book  all  on  one  level  of  style, 
and  all  expressed  in  a  solemn  austere  tone  suitable  only  to 
occasions  of  worship.  And  even  the  attention  that  has  thus 
far  been  given  to  its  literary  character  has  largely  followed 
"the  direction  which  modern  study  so  often  takes,  of  put- 
ting inquiry  into  origins  above  everything,  and  neglecting 
the  consideration  of  the  work  as  work."  ^  Such  inquiry 
is  only  one  element  of  research,  and  that  only  subsidiary 
and  external. 

As  we  treat  the  Bible  like  other  books,  however,  and 
get  into  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  it,  we  find  that  instead 
of  being  in  uniform  style  throughout,  it  has  all  the  freedom 
and  variety  that  characterizes  other  literature.  There  are 
in  it  all  the  personal  elements  which  make  literature  human 
and  vital.    We  find  here  the  lyric  intensity  of  poetry,  the 

^  Quoted  from  Saintsbury,  "  The  English  Novel,"'  p.  24. 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

impassioned  appeal  of  public  address,  the  compact  phrasing 
of  aphorism,  the  limpid  flow  of  narrative,  the  easy  famil- 
iarity of  conversation  and  epistle ;  all  fitted  like  speech  to 
author,  audience,  and  occasion.  It  rests  throughout  on  a 
basis  of  history  and  matter  of  fact ;  it  contains  also  works 
of  fiction,  allegory,  and  parable.  Some  of  its  truths  are 
expressed  in  severely  literal  terms ;  others  are  figurative 
and  symbolic,  or  molded  in  the  imagery  of  prophetic  vision. 
M.any  moods  and  tastes  are  represented,  as  befits  the  range 
of  subjects  and  the  personality  of  writers. 

The  general  style  is  indeed  that  of  the  fervid  Oriental 
mind,  which  in  its  intensity  and  imaginative  color  differs 
from  our  cooler  approach  to  things  ;  but  this  very  style,  as 
the  vehicle  of  its  lofty  subject  matter,  has  shown  a  wonder- 
ful power  to  naturalize  itself  among  modern  nations.  It  has 
proved  a  truly  creative  idiom.  This  is  seen,  for  instance,  in 
the  tremendous  debt  which  the  German  and  English  lan- 
guages owe  to  their  translations  of  the  Bible.  Our  English 
speech  and  literature  are  permeated  with  Biblical  terms, 
figures,  and  phraseology,  which,  apart  from  as  well  as  inti- 
mately associated  with  our  religious  ideals,  have  given  a  dis- 
tinctive tone  and  fiber  to  our  most  sterling  literary  style. 


II 

The  Bible  as  a  Library.  We  are  dealing  indeed  with  a 
long-developed  literature,  a  deposit  from  the  literary  mind 
and  art  of  centuries.  But  it  is  not  a  casual  or  miscellaneous 
accumulation.  It  is  a  literature  winnowed,  tested,  classified, 
a  series  of  books  on  which  scholars  and  critics  have  worked, 
in  conformity  with  the  creative  idea  at  the  root  of  the 
race's  life.  Its  various  books  are  arranged  and  correlated 
in  one  consistent  trend  and  spirit.  Hence  the  name  here 
given  to  the  collection :  a  library,  or,  to  use  the  more  formal 
term,  a  canon.    The   scripture   canon   is  the   selected  and 

[12] 


A  PRELIMINARY  SURVEY 

edited  body  of    works  which  as  a  collection    make  for  a 
certain  principle  and  purpose. 

The  gathering  and  arranging  of  these  works  into  a 
library,  which  for  the  Old  Testament  was  done  after  the 
Jews'  return  from  exile,  was  the  first  step  in  the  recognition 
of  their  essential  unity  of  relation.  As  time  went  on  this 
canon  came  to  be  rega:rded  as  a  cycle,  complete  in  its  line 
and  closed  to  further  additions  ;  a  library  of  the  nation's 
classics,  deemed  standard  and  authoritative.  After  the  liter- 
ature had  advanced,  however,  from  Jewish  interpretations 
to  Christian,  the  collection  was  reopened,  and  a  new  canoo, 
that  of  the  New  Testament,  was  added  ;  which  in  its  turn  be- 
came in  like  manner  settled  and  closed  to  further  additions. 

Note.  Tlie  Ter?n  "  Ca/tony  The  word  "  canon,"  from  the  Greek 
kaiioji.  meaning  a  reed,  that  is,  a  measuring  reed,  refers  to  the  test  or 
proof  to  which  the  books  were  subjected  in  order  to  be  judged  worthy 
of  a  place  and  rank  in  the  sacred  library.  What  this  standard  was  is 
obscure ;  but  we  feel  its  influence  in  the  character  of  the  works  chosen, 
in  the  absence  of  irrelevant  material,  and  in  the  difference  from  works 
still  extant  which  were  denied  a  place  in  the  canon.  As  one  contem- 
plates the  final  result,  so  seemingly  fortuitous  yet  so  rounded  and 
finished,  one  gets  the  same  sense  as  from  the  composition  of  the  works 
themselves :  that  there  was  a  divine  superintendence  and  control  of  the 
process,  and  that  "  the  builders  builded  better  than  they  knew." 

In  tracing  the  literature  from  its  beginnings,  we  have  to 
go  back  beyond  the  age  of  written  works  and  think  of  a 
The  s  oken  ^°"S  pre-literary  period  during  which  ideas  were 
and  the  conveycd  orally,  in  the  primitive  forms  of  song, 

"***^°  folk  tale,  parable,  and  proverb.  It  was  such  spon- 
taneous utterance  as  passes  by  word  of  mouth  from  father 
to  son,  from  teacher  to  pupil,  from  the  man  gifted  in  speech 
or  poetic  feeling  to  the  common  hearer  ;  and  it  took  the 
plain  wording  and  phrase  adapted  to  quick  understanding 
and  easy  retention  in  memory.  For  publication  and  dis- 
semination it  depended  on  oral  tradition  ;  and  the  people's 
mind   developed  an  aptitude  to  retain    it  in   as   exact   and 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Stereotyped  form  as  if  it  were  written  down.  So  it  seems  to 
have  been  until  near  the  close  of  the  formative  period  ;  and 
by  that  time  the  type  of  literary  utterance  was  well  fixed. 
It  was  simple,  large,  natural ;  it  was  strong  and  vital ;  it 
was  direct  and  personal ;  it  laid  the  foundation  of  the  Bib- 
lical literary  style.  Thus  oral  transmission,  the  word  spoken 
or  chanted,  became  the  popular  unit  of  literary  utterance, 
which  the  later  self-consciousness  of  the  man  of  letters 
could  not  avail  to  make  academic  and  artificial. 

It  would  be  a  mistake,  however,  to  suppose  that  those 
pre-literary  times  had  no  written  works.  There  are  evi- 
dences that  they  had.  There  are  inscriptions  and  letters 
still  in  existence  which  are  much  older  than  the  Hebrew 
nation.  Things  were  written  down,  however,  not  for  popu- 
lar reading  (for  ages  passed  before  the  Hebrews  became 
a  reading  people),  but  ^  for  safe-keeping  and  permanence; 
such  things  as  laws,  statutes,  oracles,  archives,  —  not  litera- 
ture but  as  it  were  the  bones  of  literature  ;  and  if  read  at 
all  were  read  to  the  people,  not  by  them.  This  motive  of 
safe-keeping  and  permanence,  always  strong,  became  domi- 
nant as  the  people  became  increasingly  conscious  of  their 
national  idea  and  hope.  It  led  them  indeed  to  attach  a 
greater  value  to  the  written  word  than  to  the  spoken,  to 
the  book  than  to  the  voice.  From  the  beginning  of  their 
national  life  the  Hebrews  had  an  extraordinary  regard  for 
anything  in  written  form.  There  was  something  fixed  and 
final  about  it ;  it  was  to  them  the  symbol  of  truth  expressed 
not  in  a  fluid  and  tentative  way  but  with  the  conclusiveness 
of  finished  thought ;  and  the  prophet  or  scribe  who  could 
wield  the  pen  was  revered  as  a  man  of  unique  distinction. 

NoTi:.  Primitive  Written  Records.  When  the  Hebrews  had  their 
national  beginnings  in  the  wilderness  and  Canaan,  the  greater  nations 
around  them  already  had  a  large  body  of  annals,  laws,  and  religious 
poems,  permanently  engraved  on  stone.  The  code  of  Hammurabi, 
which  contains  many  laws  similar  to  the  later  laws  of  Moses,  had  been  in 

[>4] 


A  PRELIMINARY  SURVEY 

existence  in  some  temple  of  Babylonia  since  the  time  of  Abraham.  The 
ten  "  words,"  or  commandments,  of  Moses  were  engraved  on  two  tablets 
of  stone  (Exod.  xxxiv,  28),  and  laid  away  in  the  ark  (Deut.  x,  3-5) 
where  more  than  three  centuries  later  they  still  were  ( i  Kings  viii,  9). 
Isaiah  is  directed  to  write  important  oracles  on  tablets  for  a  sign  of 
truth  (Isa.  viii,  1,16)  and  permanence  (xxx,  8).  The  same  feeling  of  the 
finality  of  a  written  record,  and  longing  for  it,  is  expressed  in  con- 
nection with  the  celebrated  Redeemer  passage  in  the  Book  of  Job 
(Job  xix,   23,   24)  :■ — 

Oh  that  my  words  were  now  written ! 

Oh  that  they  were  inscribed  in  a  book ! 

That  with  an  iron  pen  and  lead 

They  were  graven  in  the  rock  forever ! 

This  sentiment  of  extraordinary  reverence  for  the  book 
doubtless  rose  from  the  sense  of  what  a  serious  matter 
writing  was  in  pririiitive  times.  When  its  material  was 
tablets  of  stone  or  clay,  on  which  the  words  were  labori- 
ously incised,  the  subject  matter  would  naturally  be  con- 
densed to  the  briefest  and  weightiest  records,  and  be 
confined  to  subjects  of  public  and  impersonal  interest. 
•With  the  use  of  parchment,  however,  and  the  invention  of 
alphabetic  writing,  facility  of  writing  was  greatly  increased, 
and  with  it  a  corresponding  facility  of  the  written  idea. 
With  the  diminished  labor  and  more  tractable  material 
writing  could  acquire  more  of  the  freedom  and  flow  of 
speech,  could  more  easily  amplify  and  enrich  the  expres- 
sion, could  go  on  to  greater  range  and  fullness  of  treatment. 
All  this  was  like  an  approach  of  the  written  to  the  spoken. 
At  the  same  time,  with  the  refinement  of  literary  taste  and 
art,  the  value  of  the  works  hitherto  floating  about  in  oral 
tradition,  and  their  worthiness  to  be  perpetuated  in  a  more 
permanent  way,  would  be  increasingly  recognized ;  while 
the  oral  composition  itself,  the  poem  or  prophecy,  was  with 
advancing  culture  making  approach  to  the  carefulness  and 
restraint  of  the  written  word.  The  great  formative  period 
of  the  literature,  corresponding  roughly  to  Israel's  independ- 
ence and  autonomy  as  a  state,  is  virtually  a  long  transition 

[^5] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

from  literature  of  the  purely  oral  type  to  literature  of  the 
written  ;  to  a  form  in  which  every  variety  of  sentiment  could 
be  expressed  at  once  with  the  vigor  and  limpidness  of  speech 
and  the  artistic  depth  and  complexity  of  studied  writing. 
Its  beginning  is  marked  by  the  remains  of  song,  oracle,  and 
folk  tale  which  we  find  embedded  in  the  historical  books ; 
its  culmination,  around  the  time  of  the  Chaldean  exile,  by 
such  great  creative  works  as  the  Vision  of  Isaiah,  the  Book 
of  Deuteronomy,  and  the  Book  of  Job. 

Note.  Tlie  Interrelation  of  Speech  and  Writing.  Some  remarks 
of  Cardinal  Newman,  in  "  Idea  of  a  University,"  p.  272,  distinguish  in 
a  lucid  way  the  motive  underlying  these  two  elements  in  literature. 
"  Literature,"  he  says,  "  from  the  derivation  of  the  word,  implies 
writing,  not  speaking ;  this,  however,  arises  from  the  circumstance  of 
the  copiousness,  variety,  and  public  circulation 'of  the  matters  of  which 
it  consists.  What  is  spoken  cannot  outrun  the  range  of  the  speaker's 
voice,  and  perishes  in  the  uttering.  When  words  are  in  demand  to 
express  a  long  course  of  thought,  when  they  have  to  be  conveyed  to 
the  ends  of  the  earth,  or  perpetuated  for  the  benefit  of  posterity,  they 
must  be  written  down,  that  is,  reduced  to  the  shape  of  literature."  He 
goes  on  to  say,  however,  that  its  unit,  its  basis,  is  the  spoken  word, 
with  its  connotation  of  personality,  making  literature  not  a  mechanical 
thing  but  essentially  "  the  personal  use  or  exercise  of  language." 
It  is  this  intensely  personal  element  which  makes  the  Biblical  litera- 
ture vital.  • 

As  long  as  the  Israelite  state  remained  intact,  the 
prophets  and  men  of  letters  had  relatively  little  occasion 
^^   „  to  collect  and  classify  the  stores  of  literature  that 

The  Move-  '' 

ment  to  had  accumulated  through  the  centuries  of  their 

Collect  national  life.    Their  regards  were  centered  rather 

in  maintaining  the  welfare  of  the  people  and  the  integrity 
of  the  government  in  its  current  and  prospective  needs  ; 
and  for  this  a  vigorous  literary  activity  was  ready,  as  the 
occasions  for  it  rose.  The  spirit  of  the  literature,  as  mani- 
fested most  strongly  in  the  literary  prophets,  was  creative, 
originative,  concerned  with  the  immediate  problems  of  the 
nation's  life  and  destiny. 

[16] 


A  PRELIMINARY  SURVEY 

When,  however,  the  nation's  poHtical  hopes  failed,  and 
by  two  exiles,  the  Assyrian  (722  b.c.)  and  the  Chaldean 
(597  and  586  B.C.),  the  people  found  themselves  a  hope- 
lessly scattered  and  subject  race,  the  regards  of  the  nation's 
men  of  letters  were  turned  in  a  new  direction.  They  were 
still  united,  and  more  than  ever,  in  the  great  religious  and 
moral  ideas  that  had  given  them  a  spiritual  superiority  to 
other  races ;  and  whether  dispersed  over  the  earth  or 
returned  from  exile  in  their  home,  they  felt  the  exceeding 
value  of  the  store  of  literature  in  which  those  ideas  had 
been  evolved.  The  works  of  their  heroic  past  became 
classic ;  the  great  events  and  personalities  of  their  history 
acquired  a  distinction  which  had  not  been  realized  while 
their  history  was  being  made.  Accordingly  the  prophetic 
spirit,  which  had  been  concerned  with  issues  of  present 
and  future,  gradually  subsided,  and  succeeding  writers 
worked  rather  in  the  spirit  of  the  scribe  and  the  scholar, 
concerned  with  preserving  the  works  inherited  from  the 
past  and  with  making  them  educative  for  the  changed 
conditions  of  the  national  life. 

This  movement  to  give  the  ancient  literature  a  new  lease 
of  life  had  two  phases,  which  we  may  call  an  editorial  and  a 
selective  ;  both  characteristic  of  a  literary  mood  which  from 
spontaneous  and  adventurous  had  become  self-conscious 
and  critical. 

Already,  a  century  or  more  before  the  Exile,  the  editorial 
mood,  the  movement  to  revise,  round  out,  and  complete 
the  older  literary  works,  was  well  under  way.  These  works 
existed  in  more  or  less  scattered  and  inchoate  form  ;  some 
of  them  were  composed  for  conditions  too  primitive  to  suit 
later  needs ;  many  of  them  had  to  be  reduced  from  oral  tra- 
dition to  written  form.  To  bring  these  archaic  remains  up 
to  date,  making  them  available  for  more  modern  uses,  was  a 
natural  impulse  of  the  matured  literary  sense.  Old  stories 
of  patriarchs  and  judges,  kings  and  prophets,  were  gathered 

[17] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

and  coordinated  into  a  continuous  history ;  ancient  laws 
were  put  into  popular  form  and  modernized ;  hymns  for 
public  worship  were  adapted  to  new  religious  or  historical 
situations  ;  maxims  and  aphorisms  of  the  sages  were  col- 
lected and  compiled.  Thus  the  older  literature  was  not  only 
gathered  from  its  scattered  depositories  ;  it  was  also  kept 
renewed  and  moving  by  appreciative  editorial  work. 

Note.  Pre'exilic  Evidences  of  tJiis  Editoiial  Work.  All  the  early 
historic  books,  from  Genesis  to  2  Samuel,  are  composite,  the  work 
of  editorial  compilers  who  availed  themselves  of  the  ancient  literary 
materials  of  various  ages,  incorporating  much  that  was  unchanged, 
but  adding  connecting  links,  summaries,  notes  of  explanation,  and  the 
like ;  and  most  of  this  literature  was  so  nearly  complete  that  only  the 
scholarly  activity  of  the  Exile,  culminating  in  Ezra  the  scribe,  was 
needed  to  finish  it.  The  Book  of  Deuteronomy  was  probably  edited 
from  a  "  book  of  the  law "  found  in  the  Temple  in  622  B.C.  (see 
2  Kings  xxii).  The  section  of  the  Book  of  Proverbs  from  chapter  xxv 
to  xxix  is  said  to  have  been  compiled  by  "  the  men  of  Hezekiah  King 
of  Judah"  (727-699;  see  Prov.  xxv,  i).  These  are  only  salient  examples 
of  what  must  have  been  a  vigorous  literary  occupation. 

After  the  return  from  exile,  'during  the  four  centuries 
preceding  the  coming  of  Jesus,  while  the  attitude  of  the 
Jews  toward  other  races  and  creeds  became  more  intolerant 
and  exclusive,  the  literary  mood  became  more  critical  and 
selective,  the  activities  of  the  scribes  being  directed  to 
determining  what  works  should  find  a  place  in  their  canon, 
and  to  classifying  them  according  to  their  subject  matter 
and  form.  Into  the  history  of  this  movement  we  cannot 
enter  here.  Its  motive  is  apparent.  The  people  of  the 
widely  dispersed  race  must  be  kept  true  to  their  inherited 
ideas,  not  only  at  home  in  Palestine  where  the  Temple  and 
priesthood  were,  but  throughout  the  lands  of  their  disper- 
sion where  their  synagogues  were  the  local  centers  of  com- 
munal life,  education,  and  worship  ;  and  this  selected  library 
must  be  the  uniting  and  integrating  factor.  Besides  this, 
maintaining  so  loyally  as  they  everywhere  did  their  racial 

[18] 


A  PRELIMINARY  SURVEY 

individuality,  they  must  make  their  idea  good  against  the 
invasion  of  other  customs  and  Hteratures  and  prove  their 
own  worthiness  to  survive.  To  this  end,  out  of  the  rich 
stores  of  their  venerable  hterature  they  must  select  and 
coordinate  what  was  worthy  to  become  classic  and  reject 
what  was  below  or  aside  from  the  standard.  Thus  in  course 
of  time  the  canon  formed  itself  out  of  the  books  that  were 
deemed  to  have  a  fitting  function  in  the  nation's  library. 
Before  the  time  of  Christ  this  canon  had  not  only  been 
determined,  as  to  range  and  order,  but  translated  into 
Greek,  which  had'  become  the  cultural  language  of  the 
world  ;  and  it  was  the  Greek  version  (the  so-called  Septua- 
gint)  which  was  used  and  supplemented  by  the  writers  of 
the  New  Testament  canon. 

Notes,  i.  The  Original  Ordei-  of  the  Old  Testametit  Canon.  As 
originally  arranged  the  Hebrew  canon,  covering  our  Old  Testament, 
has  a  somewhat  different  order  from  what  we  have  in  our  Bible.  It 
falls  into  three  great  divisions,  which  represent  three  stages  of  selection 
and  compilation,  and  which  were  named  respectively  the  Law,  the 
Prophets,  and  the  Writings  or  Scriptures.  The  following  is  a  brief 
tabulation  of  them  : 

(1)  The  Law,  sometimes  called  the  five  fifths  of  the  law,  Greek 
Pentateuch  :   Genesis,   Exodus,  Leviticus,   Numbers,  Deuteronomy. 

(2)  The  Prophets,  namely,  {a)  Earlier  Prophets :  Joshua,  Judges, 
Samuel  (two  books  in  one),  Kings  (also  undivided) ;  (i^)  Later  Prophets  : 
Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  The  Twelve  (all  the  minor  prophets  being 
comprehended  in  one  book). 

(3)  The  Writings,  Greek  Hagiographa.  namely,  {a)  the  antholo- 
gies: Psalms,  Proverbs,  Job;  {b)  the  Megilloth,  or  Rolls:  Canticles, 
Ruth,  Lamentations,  Ecclesiastes,  Esther ;  (c)  Unclassified :  Daniel, 
Ezra,  Nehemiah,  Chronicles. 

In  the  preface  to  the  apocryphal  Book  of  Ecclesiasticus  (130  B.C.) 
these  divisions  are  referred  to  as  "  the  law,  and  the  prophets,  and  the 
other  books  of  our  fathers."  In  Luke  xxiv,  44,  Jesus  speaks  of  these 
as  "  the  law  of  Moses,  and  the  prophets,  and  the  psalms,"  designating 
the  third  division  by  its  first  book. 

2.  The  Supplementary  (^Neiv  Testament)  Canon.  The  Old  Testa- 
ment canon,  which  was  made  up  for  uses  of  the  Jewish  religion  and 

[19] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

retained  by  the  Jews,  was  adopted  from  the  beginning  by  the  Christian 
church,  which  indeed  began  as  a  Jewish  sect.  The  New  Testament 
canon,  which  in  the  course  of  two  centuries  was  made  up  for  Christian 
uses,  supplements  the  former  by  adding  the  fulfiUment  and  completion 
to  which  the  old  looks  forward.  Like  the  older  canon,  it  puts  its  his- 
torical part,  consisting  of  the  four  gospels  and  the  Acts,  first;  but  the 
second  part,  consisting  of  epistolary  works  from  St.  Paul  and  others, 
was  written  earlier  than  the  completed  gospels.  In  our  study  of  Bib- 
lical literature  the  two  canons  are  treated  as  harmonious  with  each 
other  and  in  a  way  continuous ;  for  our  purposes  indeed  the  two  are 
one  library,  making  the  whole  Bible  a  unitary  cycle  of  literature. 

Two  important  results  of  this  develofDment  from  a  mis- 
cellaneous literature  to  a  coordinated  library  or  canon  are  to 

^^  be  noted  and  borne  in  mind  as  we  study, 
this  Library  I .  Much  of  the  literature  we  have  in  a  revised 
Selection  form,  adapted  to  conditions  later  than  those  of 
the  first  composition.  The  revisions  were  indeed  made 
conscientiously  and  with  remarkable  skill  and  sympathy ; 
but  sometimes  differing  versions  of  the  same  event  may 
be  interwoven,  or  introduced  side  by  side  without  attempt 
to  reduce  discrepancies.  Customs  and  ideas  which  have 
grown  obsolete  may  be  interpreted  by  standards  of  the 
later  time  when  the  final  account  was  given.  Primitive 
elements  may  exist  among  the  more  matured  and  refined. 
In  other  words,  the  Bible  literature,  owing  to  the  conditions 
in  which  it  was  developed,  is  very  largely  a  composite 
literature,  containing  elements  of  varying  age  and  mintage. 
This  fact  increases  the  diflBculty  of  historic  verification  ;  but 
it  does  not  impair,  it  enhances  rather,  the  spiritual  and 
literary  value  of  the  whole,  because  the  editorial  work  has 
softened  the  crudities  of  style  and  presented  the  truth  of 
the  theme  in  a  more  finished  and  uniform  edition. 

2.  The  various  books  and  their  component  parts  were 
written  in  one  order,  an  order  following  in  the  large  the 
historical  experience  of  the  nation.  As  an  arranged  library, 
however,  they  are  to  be  read  and  estimated  in  another  order, 

L20] 


A  PRELIMINARY  SURVEY 

an  order  rather  of  dependence  than  of  chronology.  The 
books  of  earhest  theme,  Hke  Genesis,  were  not  the  earHest 
written  ,  and  they  contain  evidences  of  a  more  advanced 
and  matured  thinking  than  do  some  other  books,  hke  for 
instance  Judges.  Leviticus  contains  a  later  development  of 
law  than  Deuteronomy.  The  prophets,  which  in  the  canon 
come  after  the  historical  books,  have  to  be  fitted  into  the 
history  by  internal  evidence  ;  and  generally  they  come  be- 
fore the  Mosaic  law  is  completed,  though  the  latter  is  in 
Hebrew  estimation  the  first  division  of  the  Bible,  both  in 
time  and  importance. 

The  noting  of  such  historical  connections  as  these  has 
in  the  last  half  century  revolutionized  and  greatly  illumi- 
nated Biblical  research  ;  it  is  in  fact  the  main  business  of 
what  is  called  the  Higher  Criticism.  It  is  to  be  valued  not 
blindly  nor  exclusively,  but  for  what  it  is  worth.  The  study 
of  the  Bible  in  its  canonical  order  has  its  advantages  too ; 
and  the  present  and  eternal  values  do  not  depend  on  our 
knowledge  of  ancient  history. 


Ill 

The  Bible  as  a  Book.  The  editorial  and  selective  move- 
ment by  which  a  race's  literature  was  winnowed  and  reduced 
to  a  classified  library  was  but  a  stage  in  a  movement  greater 
still,  whose  full  significance  could  not  well  come  to  light 
untir  the  culminating  stage  was  reached,  to  complete  and 
round  out  the  whole. 

This  culminating  stage  of  the  Biblical  literature  is  com- 
prised in  the  New  Testament.  With  this  body  of  writings 
to  draw  the  meanings  of  things  into  unity  and  coordination, 
it  is  seen  that  the  Bible  resolves  itself  into  a  single  book. 
It  has  the  authentic  traits  of  an  organic  and  homogeneous 
individual  work  of  literature.  Like  any  well-planned  book 
it  has  one  inclusive  plot  or  theme  ;  it  has  a  single  purpose, 

[21] 


GUIDEBOOK  I'O  lilBLICAL  LITERA7T*RE 

a  correlation  of  parts,  a  consistently  developed  movement, 
a  fitting  denouement ;  it  has  a  unitary  ideal,  to  which  its 
whole  scheme  of  character,  object,  and  event  is  related. 
Thus  it  has  earned  its  unique  title  :    The  Book. 

What  all  this  book  movement  is,  in  outline,  will  appear 
as  we  trace  the  story  of  a  literature  some  thirteen  hundred 
years  in  the  making.  Its  beginnings  emerge  from  dim 
prehistoric  times  whose  conditions  can  be  traced  only  by 
spiritual  insight.  It  is  closely  interwoven  with  the  progress 
of  a  nation's  history  ;  and  yet  its  truth  is  larger  than  his- 
torical events  can  compass  or  explain.  It  is  enmeshed  with 
the  thoughts  and  motives  of  human  nature  from  manhood's 
primitive  elements  ;  and  yet  by  a  steady  pr5phetic  pulsation 
it  sweeps  onward  beyond  the  natural  course  of  human 
tendency  until  the  human  blends  with  the  divine.  By 
reason  of  this  spiritual  movement  and  high  culmination 
it  is  that  this  book,  so  many  ages  in  the  making,  bears 
emphatic  marks  of  one  superintending  Mind,  one  organic 
purpose.  It  is  impossible  to  account  for  all  that  the  Book 
is  without  holding  it  to  be  as  truly  the  word  of  God  as 
the  composition  of  man. 

Without  attempting  to  measure  the  divine  factor  in  this 

movement,    however,   we   may   here   note   two   cardinal  ele- 

„  ,.  ,  ,  ments,  reciprocally  related  to  each  other,  which 
Rationale  of  >  i  j  > 

the  Biblical  work  together  to  make  the  Bible  a  unitary  book. 
Movement  jj^^  ^^^^  j^^  ^j^^^  throughout  the  Old  Testament 

range  of  utterance  its  authors  had,  in  varying  degrees  as 
occasion  called,  a  prophetic  intuition  and  conviction  of  their 
people's  duty  and  destiny,  and  shaped  their  literary  work 
accordingly.  The  Old  Testament  is  a  forward-looking  book. 
It  is  imbued  with  the  idea  that  the  unique  history  it  records 
is  history  working  to  an  end.  Of  the  racial  traits  that  come 
to  light  in  it,  none  is  more  constant  than  what  has  been 
called   "the   habitual   expectancy   of  the   Semitic  mind "  ;i 

1  G.  A.  Smith,  "  liook  of  the  Twelve  Prophets,"  Vol.  I,  p.  15. 

[22] 


A  PRELIMINARY  SURVEY 

and  of  all  the  strains  of  literary  utterance  represented  the 
most  vital  and  potent  is  the  prophetic. 

The  second  element  is,  that  as  the  Personage  whose 
words  and  ministry  are  the  soul  of  the  New  Testament 
was  imbued  with  the  dynamic  spirit  of  this  prophetic  liter- 
ature, he  set  himself  consciously  and  determinately  to  trans- 
late its  ideals  into  terms  of  human  life.  He  made  it  his 
vocation  to  interpret,  to  correct,  and  to  fulfill  what  the  men 
of  truest  intuition  in  the  ages  before  had  dimly  foreseen 
ought  to  be.  The  life  of  Jesus  and  the  literature  that 
gathered  round  and  derived  from  it  are  as  truly  expressed 
in  terms  of  completion  and  fulfillment  as  the  Old  Testament 
is  in  terms  of  promise  and  expectation. 

Thus,  with  these  two  factors  prophecy  and  fulfillment 
answering  in  their  order  to  each  other,  the  Bible  may  be 
regarded  as  essentially  the  story  (may  we  not  call  it  the 
epic .'')  of  the  spiritual  development  of  manhood,  as  this 
is  revealed  through  the  experiences  of  a  nation  specially 
endowed  to  this  end,  and  as  it  culminates  in  a  supreme  Per- 
sonality in  whom  is  revealed  the  Son  of  Man,  which  is  to  say 
the  complete  adult  manhood.  If  we  seek  for  the  supreme 
interpreter  of  Biblical  history  and  thought,  the  one  without 
whom  it  would  be  a  plot  without  a  consummation,  this  is 
he.  This  is  how  the  later  Biblical  writers  read  the  course 
of  the  vast  action,  as  its  end  and  purpose  lay  unrolled 
before  them.  To  this  end  all  who  wrought  at  the  sublime 
literary  structure  —  prophets,  historians,  evangelists,  apostles 
—  builded  better  than  they  knew,  for  an  unseen  Wisdom 
and  Spirit  wrought  with  them.  And  so  as  their  work  began 
with  the  vision  of  the  primal  spirit  of  man  issuing  raw  and 
untried  from  the  Creator's  hand,  it  ended,  after  the  "  dim 
and  perilous  way "  of  his  spiritual  education  and  growth 
had  been  traversed,  with  the  vision,  still  going  on  to  reali- 
zation, of  "  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fullness  of 
Christ,"    which    is    St.   Paul's    definition   of    "a   full-grown 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

man."  No  theme  can  be  greater  ;  no  plot  more  masterly 
and  comprehensive ;  no  solution  of  the  vast  problem  so 
simple  and  true.  Need  you  ask  what  is  the  Book  of  Life } 
There  is  but  one.  All  the  rest  are  but  broken  fragments 
or  pale  reflections  of  its  undying  truth. 


[24] 


BOOK   I 

THE   FORMATIVE  CENTURIES 


There  is  a  great  difference  between  a  book  which  is  written  by  a 
particular  individual  and  is  dispensed  by  him  among  the  people,  and  a 
book  which  makes  a  people  itself.  One  cannot  doubt  that  the  book  is 
as  old  as  the  people.  —  Pascal,  Thoughts 


[26] 


THE   FORMATIVE   CENTURIES 

THE  seven  centuries  during  which  the  Hterature  of  the 
Hebrew  people  was  gradually  unfolding  from  elemen- 
tal to  rounded  form  and  content  correspond  roughly  to  the 
period  of  their  independent  existence  as  a  stat».  The  great 
epoch  to  which  their  prophets  and  historians  looked  back 
as  a  beginning  was  that  of  their  deliverance,  as  unorganized 
tribes  and  families,  from  a  life  of  bondage  in  Egypt,  about 
1320  years  before  Christ,  The  influence  of  that  event 
colored  all  their  songs  and  stories  with  the  sense  of  inti- 
mate dependence  on  their  deliverer  Jehovah,  and  with  the 
presage  of  a  high  destiny  and  purpose.  This  continued, 
its  meanings  wrought  out  with  increasing  clearness  and 
force,  through  a  turbulent  period  of  tribal  anarchy  under 
the  Judges,  in  which  days  "  there  was  no  king  in  Israel : 
every  man  did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes " 
(Judg,  xvii,  6 ;  xviii,  i  ;  xix,  i  ;  xxi,  25)  ;  through  the 
organization  of  a  kingdom  under  Saul,  and  its  vigorous 
unity  under  David  and  Solomon  ;  through  the  varied  for- 
tunes of  the  two  kingdoms  of  Judah  and  Israel,  with  their 
exposure  to  contentions  within  and  invasions  military  and 
religious  from  without ;  until  the  time  was  ripe  for  the 
people  to  undergo  a  momentous  ordeal,  the  ordeal  of  de- 
portation and  exile  and  dispersion.  At  the  time  of  this 
event,  that  of  the  Chaldean  captivity  from  586  to  538  B.C., 
the  Israelite  people  had  in  possession  a  noble  store  of  litera- 
ture, accessible  to  all  classes,  from  which  they  could  derive 
hope  and  guidance  for  the  unknown  experiences  yet  to 
come.  All  the  period  thus  covered  was,  as  regards  their 
racial  and  religious  idea,  a  germinal  and  preparatory  period  ; 
which  therefore  we  may  call  the  Formative  Centuries. 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

These  centuries  were  formative  as  well  for  the  nation  as 
for  the  literature.  Beginning  with  a  primitive  aggregation 
of  tribes  and  clans,  so  untrained  to  organization  that  a 
whole  generation  of  wilderness  education  has  to  be  under- 
gone before  they  are  fit  to  colonize  their  allotted  land,  tl^^ir 
corporate  life  has  to  grow  through  various  advancing  stages 
of  civilization,  —  nomadic,  pastoral,  agricultural,  —  before 
they  reach  the  organized  and  urban  state  in  which  they  can 
be  fully  aware  of  their  national  idea  and  principle,  and  of 
their  religious  trend.  They  are  finding  themselves,  pupils' 
as  it  were,  in  the  school  of  Jehovah.  And  during  these 
centuries  their  peculiar  formative  idea  must  make  itself 
good  in  the  face  of  peoples  stronger  and  more  civilized 
than  they,  proving  thus  its  fitness  to  survive  and  overcome. 
It  must  by  varied  experience  and  discovery  prove  its  intrin- 
sic fitness  to  be  the  law  of  sterling  manhood,  among  the 
speculations  and  idolatries  and  superstitions  of  the  earth. 


[28] 


o 


CHAPTER  I 

SEMINA  LITTERARUM 
[Till  the  end  of  the  reign  of  David,  cir.  970  B.C.] 

F  A  PEOPLE  whose  unique  mission  it  was  to  bring  forth 
a  Bible  for  the  most  enhghtened  races  of  the  world 
we  need  to  know  more  than  is  implied  in  a  census  of  ex- 
tant literary  production.  We  need  to  know  something  of  its 
native  fitness  for  this  mission  ;  of  its  endowments  of  mind, 
temperament,  character ;  of  its  distinctive  gifts  of  insight 
and  expression  ;  and  of  that  more  comprehensive  spiritual 
energy  which  we  may  name  its  genius.  It  is  among  such 
elements  as  these  that  we  are  to  trace  the  vital  germs  of  its 
literature,  the  Semina  Litterarum. 

I.  The  Hebrew  Mind 

The  Bible  is  essentially  a  Hebrew  book.  It  bears 
throughout  the  characteristic  impress  of  the  Hebrew  mind. 
The  Old  Testament  was  written  mostly  in  the  Hebrew  lan- 
guage ;  and  the  different  ages  in  which  its  various  works 
were  composed  represent  the  language  from  its  time  of 
classical  purity,  when  it  was  the  people's  vernacular,  to  the 
time  when  it  was  becoming  a  book  language,  and  its  place 
as  a  people's  tongue  was  being  taken  by  the  closely  allied 
Aramaic.  The  New  Testament  was  written  in  Greek,  and 
availed  itself,  especially  in  the  more  doctrinal  portions,  of 
Greek  ways  of  thinking,  at  a  time  when  the  Greek  mind 
was  dominant  in  the  culture  and  philosophy  of  the  world. 
The  New  Testament  writers  read  their  Old  Testament,  too, 
in  a  Greek  version. 

[29] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

This  transition  from  Hebrew  to  Greek,  however,  while 
it  enlarged  and  enriched  the  thinking  of  the  later  writers, 
did  not  determine  it.  The  Hebrew  genius  prevails  through- 
out :  its  'peculiar  racial  coloring ;  its  inherited  ideas  of  life  ; 
its  fidelity  to  conscience  and  morals  ;  its  religious  interpre- 
tations of  history  and  experience ;  its  prophetic  sense  of 
manhood's  mission  and  destiny.  This  is  as  true  of  the 
New  Testament  as  of  the  Old  ;  for  the  New  Testament  is 
but  the  perpetuation  and  maturing  of .  ideals  that  had  long 
germinated  in  Hebrew  minds.  As  our  Lord  Jesus  himself 
said  to  the  woman  of  Samaria,  "Salvation"  —  that  is,  the 
health  of  manhood  —  "is  of  the  Jews"  (John  iv,  22).  And 
the  germinal  principles  of  this  werfe  determined  from  the 
beginning  of  their  history. 

Notes,  i  .  The  Language  of  the  Old  Testament.  "  All  the  Old 
Testament  books  are  written  in  Hebrew,  with  the  exception  of  parts  of 
Daniel  and  Ezra,  namely,  Dan.  ii,  4-vii,  28 ;  Ezra  iv,  8-vi,  1 8,  vii, 
12-26,  which  are  in  Aramaic,  a  language  closely  allied  to  the  Hebrew 
and  at  least  as  old.  There  is  also  a  single  Aramaic  verse  in  the  Book 
of  Jeremiah,  where  it  appears  suddenly  and  perplexingly  in  the  midst  of 
a  Hebrew  paragraph  (Jer.  x,  11);  and  two  Aramaic  words  in  Genesis 
xxxi,  47,  on  the  occasion  when  Laban  the  Aramean  gives  to  the  pile  of 
stones  set  up  for  a  testimony  between  himself  and  Jacob  the  name 
of  Jegar-Sahadutha,  which  is  merely  the  Aramaic  equivalent  of  the 
Hebrew  Gale-ed,  '  heap  of  witness.'  "  ^ 

2.  Front  Hebrew  and  Aramaic  to  Greek.  "  Aramaic,  as  a  vehicle 
for  profound  religious  thought,  was  poor  and  inexpressive  and  halting 
compared  with  the  richness  and  variety  of  the  Greek.  Though  capable, 
no  doubt,  of  development,  it  did  not  develop,  unless  to  a  very  slight 
extent.  Greek  had  ready  a  wealth  of  religious  and  philosophic  termi- 
nology, equal  to  the  expression  of  the  most  exalted  and  far-reaching 
conceptions,  and  had  already  carried  speculation  to  its  furthest  bounds. 
No  other  existing  language  could  offer  equal  facilities  to  a  doctrine 
that  desired  to  be  known,  and  a  literature  that  claimed  to  have  a  mes- 
sage for  all  mankind.  Aramaic  yielded  place  to  Greek,  and  for  the 
world  at  large,  for  just  and  liberal  thought,  the  change  was  fraught 
with  inestimable  gain."^ 

1  Geden,  "  Introduction  to  the  Hebrew  Bible,"  pp.  3,  4.     ^  Ibid.  p.  167. 

[30] 


.      SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

Of  the  Hebrew  mind  thus  represented  in  language  and 
literature  two  aspects  come  up  for  consideration. 


The  Genius  of  a  Race.  The  Hebrews  were  of  the  Semitic 
race,  whose  original  home  was  in  Western  Asia  and  Arabia. 
The  main  branches  of  this  race  were  the  Chaldeans,  the 
Arabians,  the  Phoenicians,  the  Assyrians,  and  the  Arameans ; 
of  which  last-named  branch  the  Hebrews  were  a  division. 
The  name  Hebrew  is  first  applied  to  Abram,  or  Abraham, 
the  great  ancestor  to  whom  the  Hebrew  people  traced  the 
beginnings  and  distinctive  trend  of  their  faith.  In  him, 
in  his  personal  initiative,  was  embodied,  as  was  felt,  the 
peculiar  genius  of  the   Hebrew  race. 

Notes,  i.  Abraham'' s  Guiding  Idea  and  its  Sequel.  The  guiding 
idea  which  led  Abram  to  migrate  first  from  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  (Gen. 
xi,  31)  to  Haran  in  Mesopotamia,  and  later  to  Canaan  (Gen.  xii,  4,  5), 
is  given  in  Gen.  xii,  1-3,  and  several  times  repeated  (see  Gen.  xiii, 
14-17;  XV,  5-7);  reenforced  by  a  change  of  name  from  Abram  to 
Abraham,  Gen.  xvii,  4-8.  He  is  first  called  Abram  the  Hebrew, 
Gen.  xiv,  13;  and  his  descendants  are  called  Hebrews,  Exod.  iii,  18, 
and  frequently.  As  late  as  the  time  of  Jesus  the  Jews  were  proud  of 
their  Abrahamic  descent  (Matt,  iii,  9),  and  recognized  their  essential 
freedom  of  spirit  as  from  him  (John  viii,  33).  His  significance  for 
the  Jewish  faith  is  summed  up  in  Ecclus.  xliv,  19,  20;  and  for  the 
Christian  faith,  Heb.  xi,  8-12. 

2.  Derivation  of  the  Name  "  Hebrew.''''  The  word  "  Hebrew " 
by  its  derivation  means  "  one  of  the  other  side  "  —  that  is,  of  some 
boundary  —  and  seems  to  refer  to  the  fact  that  the  Hebrew  people 
came  originally  from  beyond  the  Euphrates  or  perhaps  beyond  the 
Syrian  desert.  That  general  region,  called  anciently  the  land  of  Shinar 
(cf.  Gen.  xi,  2),  was  the  cradle  of  the  Semitic  race  and  according  to 
Bible  ideas  of  the  human  race  as  well. 

Every  energetic  race  derives  its  initiative,  its  habitual 
determination  of  character,  from  some  personal  formative 
influence,  who  by  the  power  of  h^s  personality,  or  some 
decisive  experience,  has  impressed  his  mind  and  ideal  on 

[31] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

followers  or  descendants,  and  thus  becomes  to  them  a  kind 
of  spiritual  organic  principle.  Hebrew  history  is  rich  in  such 
A  D  ter-  personal  sources  of  influence,  which  will  come 
mined  by  up  for  Consideration.  We  need  mention  here 
Initiative  ^^^^^  ^-j^q  one  from  whom  the  race  derived  its 
primal  impulse,  the  vital  principle  which  distinguished  the 
genius  of  this  race  from  that  of  others.  As  one  great 
family  —  the  idea  of  which  no  national  divisions  or  rival- 
ries availed  to  efface  —  the  Hebrews  traced  their  formative 
energy,  in  its  most  inclusive  principle,  to  their  great  an- 
cestor Abraham,  the  patriarch  from  whom  all  their  clans 
and  tribes  were  descended.  Round  his  life  a  store  of 
traditions  gathered,  which  in  pre-literary  times  were  trans- 
mitted from  generation  to  generation,  doubtless  with  in- 
creasing detail  and  realistic  incident ;  which  traditions 
later  assumed  their  final  form  and  setting  in  the  Book 
of  Genesis. 

The  energizing  force  of  Abraham's  personality,  as  well 
known  to  every  Hebrew  as  is  the  Mayflotver  voyage  and  its 
motive  to  New  Englanders,  was  a  steadfast  prophetic  faith, 
a  spirit  of  devout  trust  in  God,  which  had  impelled  him  to 
cut  loose  from  country  and  kindred  and  migrate  from  his 
native  Chaldea  to  a  land  yet  unknown,  where  he  could  found 
a  family  and  give  it  a  purified  ideal  and  direction.  "  He 
believed  in  Jehovah,"  it  is  related  of  him,  "and  he  reck- 
oned it  to  him  for  righteousness  "  (Gen.  xv,  6)  ;  a  charac- 
terization which  till  the  latest  period  of  scripture  literature 
was  held  as  a  native  norm  of  spiritual  life  (cf.  Rom.  iv,  3, 
9,  22;  Gal.  iii,  6;  Jas.  ii,  23).  In  this  faith  he  became 
assured  that  he  would  be  the  ancestor  of  an  innumerable 
offspring,  and  that  in  his  seed  all  the  nations  of  mankind 
would  be  blessed  (Gen.  xii,  2,  3  ;  xvii,  4-8  ;  xxii,  16-18). 

From  its  earliest  self-expression  the  Hebrew  temperament 
was  keyed,  as  it  were,  to  this  note  of  faith  :  an  attitude  of 
spirit  to  be  cherished  and  kept  intact,  and  to  be  transmitted 

[32] 


SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

as  an  ancestral  heritage.  It  was  the  race's  vital  idea,  like 
the  modern  sense  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  integrity  or  of  the 
white  man's  burden.  And  it  has  remained,  alike  in  religion 
and  in  practical  affairs,  the  most  elemental  trait  of  the 
Hebrew  nature,  a  latent  motive  working  at  the  center  of 
their  varied  experience,  and  kept  living  by  their  prophets 
and  teachers. 

.  In  Abraham  this  faith  is  primitive  and,  as  it  were,  undif- 
ferentiated ;  in  his  successors  and  descendants  it  matures 
in  personal  and  broadly  historical  relations. 

Abraham's  faith  was  passive :  an  implicit  dependence 
upon  and  committal  to  the  will  and  mandate  of  God.  By 
this  he  had  taken  the  decisive  step  beyond  the 
to  Racial  introspcctive  quietism  of  the  far  East,  and  the 
Character  rigidity  of  the  Semitic  mind,  and  centered  his 
life  on  a  divine  guidance  believed  in  as  personal  and  real. 
His  son  Isaac  continued  this  relatively  neutral  attitude, 
living  and  dying  in  peaceful  relations  with  his  neighbors, 
keeping  intact  his  birthright  of  belief,  and  letting  his 
worldly  affairs  shape  themselves.  Not  so  the  grandson 
Jacob,  the  younger  of  Isaac's  twin  sons.  His  faith  was  an 
energy  intensely  active  ^ — a  far-seeing,  inventive,  tenacious 
venture  on  whatever  promised  success  in  practical  life.  The 
stories  told  of  him  bring  this  out  with  wonderful  realism. 
This  active  faith  of  his  had  two  directions :  toward  the 
achievement  of  worldly  success,  and  toward  equally  prized 
spiritual  values.  This  combination  of  material  and  ideal  is 
typified  in  the  double  name  which  he  came  to  bear.  From 
being  Jacob,  the  shrewd  and  unscrupulous  "  supplanter" 
(Gen.  XXV,  26),  in  which  character  he  got  the  better  of 
his  father,  his  brother,  and  'his  father-in-law,  he  became  in 
course  of  time  Israel,  "  God's  prevailer  "  (Gen.  xxxii,  28), 
by  reason  of  his  eager  determination  to  secure  divine  favor, 
as  is  shown  in  the  story  of  his  wrestling  with  the  angel 
(Gen.  xxxii,  24-31),    In  this  latter  character,  and  with  this 

[33] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

new  name,  the  patriarch  hved  on  to  a  gentle  and  dev^out 
old  age,  the  progenitor  of  the  twelve  tribes  into  whose 
family  traits  and  fortunes  the  Israelite  nation  was  distrib- 
uted. All  this  reflects,  as  in  a  condensing  mirror,  the  dom- 
inant genius  of  the  Hebrew  race.  It  is  the  development  of 
an  obedient  faith  into  an  indomitable  will,  bent  on  appro- 
priating the  blessings  of  life,  material  and  spiritual.  In 
striking  accord  with  this  primitive  characterization,  the 
Hebrew  race  has  been  and  still  is  a  power  to  be  reckoned 
with  both  in  the  progress  of  civilization  and  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  a  religion  for  the  world.  Here  in  the  story  of 
Jacob-Israel  is  seen  portrayed,  as  nowhere  else  so  suc- 
cinctly,  its  vital  dynamic  of  faith  and  will. 

Note.  It  will  be  remembered  that  these  stories  of  Abraham  and 
Jacob,  rising  out  of  the  people's  self-consciousness  as  a  nation  and  a 
race,  did  not  assume  their  present  form  until  centuries  of  life  under 
Jehovah  and  in  contact  with  the  world  had  determined  their  racial 
character ;  and  through  these  stories  the  writers  interpreted  their  racial 
traits  in  masterly  terms  of  individualized  personality.  It  is  historical 
conditions  reduced  to  biographical  detail. 

In  the  two  directions  just  mentioned,  toward  civilization 
and  toward  religion,  we  must  take  note  of  the  peculiar 
A  R  1  t  d     genius  of  the  Hebrew  race. 

to  a  World  I .   For  its  bearing  on  the  progress  of  civiliza- 

ission  tion,  we  go  back  to  the  more  primitive  Semitic 

stock,  of  which  the  Hebrews  were  a  branch,  and  whose 
mission  it  was  essentially  to  focus  its  best  qualities  into 
a  spiritual  dynamic  ;  and  compare  this  with  the  Aryan  or 
Indo-European  stock,  to  which  the  European  and  western 
races  belong.  Each  division  of  mankind  had  its  broad 
and  worthy  function  :  the  .Semitic,  endowed  with  religious 
fervor  and  insight,  to  be  the  pioneers  of  conscience  and 
moral  enlightenment ;  the  Aryan,  with  its  literary  and  ar- 
tistic gifts,  and  its  genius  for  practical  affairs,  to  make 
intelligence    available    in    progress    and    civilization.     Both 

[34] 


SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

have  their  periods  of  world  ascendancy ;  and  the  transition 
from  Semitic  to  Aryan  begins  to  be  made  when  Cyrus  the 
Medo-Persian  conquers  the  huge  empire  of  Chaldea  and 
finds  there  the  Hebrews,  a  captive  people  who  since  the 
far-away  time  of  Abraham  have  lived  through  a  momentous 
cycle  of  divine  education  from  Chaldea  to  Chaldea  again, 
and  are  now  ready  to  take  up  their  appointed  mission  in 
the  new  order  of  civilization.  From  this  epoch  onward,  and 
especially  as  Biblical  literature  matures,  we  can  realize  with 
increasing  clearness  the  part  which  the  Semitic  influence 
was  destined  to  play  in  the  civilizing  forces  of  the  world. 

Note.  Racial  Influences.  Our  intellectual  and^  moral  gains  from 
the  past  are,  broadly  speaking,  the  resultant  of  two  great  deposits  of 
thought  and  sentiment,  the  one  the  gift  of  the  Aryan,  the  other  a 
boon  from  the  Semitic  race.  To  the  former  we  owe,  again  speaking 
generally,  most  of  our  mental  and  political  acquisitions ;  to  the  latter, 
the  principal  elements  of  our  moral  and  spiritual  heritage.  .  .  .  The 
business  of  civilizing  and  saving  the  world,  as  far  as  the  merely  human 
factors  are  concerned,  has  been  carried  on  through  the  transfer  of 
moral  and  spiritual  ideas  and  the  arts  of  civilized  life  from  the  one 
race  to  the  other.  In  nearly  everything  vital  to  human  well-being  the 
Semites  were  the  founders  or  forerunners.  .  .  .  The  greatest  boon 
which  any  race  or  people  ever  conferred  upon  humanity,  was  that  of 
religious  truth  and  freedom,  and  this  was  the  gift  of  the  Hebrews  of 
Palestine.  Yet  not  by  them  as  a  race  has  it  been  or  is  it  now  being 
converted  to  the  uses  of  the  world.  While  the  unique  national  career 
and  institutions  of  Israel  fitted  that  single  people  to  be  the  deposita- 
ries of  saving  truth  and  knowledge,  it  was  the  civilizing  genius  of  one 
branch  of  the  Aryan  race  and  the  political  supremacy  of  another,  which 
prepared  the  wider  and  deeper  channels  through  which  the  divinely 
conferred  endowment  was  conveyed  to  the  kindreds  and  people  of 
mankind.  —  McCuRDV,  "  History,  Prophecy,  and  the  Monuments," 
Vol.  I,  pp.  5-7. 

2.  For  its  bearing  on  religion,  we  return  from  the  undif- 
ferentiated Semitic  stock,  of  whose  intense  genius  "  seers, 
martyrs,  and  fanatics  are  bred  "  ^  and  three  of  the  leading 

^  G.  A.  Smith,  "  Historical  Geography  of  the  Holy  Land,"  p.  29. 
[35] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

religions  of  the  world  (namely,  Judaism,  Mohammedanism, 
and  Christianity)  have  come,  to  the  Hebrew  branch,  to  take 
note  of  its  more  specific  function.  Here  again  we  see  how 
vitally  their  energy  of  faith  and  will  coordinates  with  the 
distinctive  gifts  of  other  races.  They  were  not  eminent  in 
art  and  literature  and  philosophic  thought ;  this  was  the 
gift  of  the  Greeks  to  the  education  of  humanity.  For  the 
organization  and  administration  of  empire  and  law  and  gov- 
ernment we  cannot  look  to  them  ;  this  was  the  gift  of  the 
Romans.  But  to  this  Hebrew  race  we  owe  preeminently 
the  development  of  religious  insight  and  conscience  to  the 
point  where  it  is  ready  to  transcend  ethnic  or  racial  bounds 
and  become  a  universal  boon  for  humanity.  Thus  they 
formed,  so  to  say,  one  strand  in  a  threefold  cord  of  com- 
prehensive development  and  culture,  supplying  the  dis- 
tinctively spiritual  element.  By  reason  of  their  unique 
experience  and  leading,  religious  ideas  were  so  developed, 
purified,  and  proportioned  to  life,  that  only  the  culminating 
stage  of  the  Christian  interpretation  was  needed  to  free 
them  from  provincial  limits  and  make  them  universal.  No 
other  race  approaches  them  in  this  endowment.  It  is  to 
the  Hebrew  mind  the  world  owes  it  that  religion  is  held 
as  a  vital  element  of  practical  and  rational  living,  —  that  is, 
as  a  righteous  character  vitalized  by  conscience, — as  distin- 
guished from  a  crude  magic  and  superstition,  on  the  one 
side,  and  a  dead  mechanical  formalism,  on  the  other.  And 
the  vehicle  by  which  this  is  conveyed  to  the  world  is  the 
body  of  literature  which  the  enlightened  world  has  adopted 
as  its  Bible. 

Note.  The  Hebrew  Religious  Sense.  As  long  as  the  world  lasts, 
all  who  want  to  make  progress  in  righteousness  will  come  to  Israel  for 
inspiration,  as  to  the  people  who  have  had  the  sense  for  righteous- 
ness most  glowing  and  strongest ;  and  in  hearing  and  reading  the 
words  Israel  has  uttered  for  us,  carers  for  conduct  will  find  a  glow 
and  a  force  they  could  find  nowhere  else.  —  Arnold,  "  Literature 
and  Dogma,"  p.  50. 

■       [36] 


SEMINA  LITTERARUM 


II 


The  Dominant  Aptitude.  Every  nation  has  its  distinctive 
type  of  mind,  its  characteristic  approach  to  things.  In  its 
contemplation  of  the  world  of  nature  and  man  and  life,  that 
attitude  to  the  universe  out  of  which  comes  its  distinctive 
strain  of  literary  utterance,  the  Hebrew  mind  may  best  be 
understood,  perhaps,  by  comparison  with  the  Greek,  the 
one  other  great  originative  mind  of  history. 

While  the  Greek  mind  was  keenly  intellectual,  apt  in 
abstract  thinking  and  reasoning,  the  Hebrew  mind  was 
intense,  concrete,  realistic.  To  the  Greek,  truth  presented 
itself  in  principles,  laws,  logical  deductions  ;  to  the  Hebrew 
in  analogies,  intuitions,  descriptive  imagery.  We  may  in 
part  name  these  dominant  aptitudes  by  saying  the  Greek 
was  a  born  philosopher,  the  Hebrew  an  alert  observer. 
From  the  Greek  cast  of  mind  comes  abstract  and  systematic 
thinking  ;  from  the  Hebrew  cast  of  mind,  keen  observation 
and  intuitive  insight.  St.  Paul  has  touched  upon  this  dis- 
tinction in  his  remark  that  the  Jews  look  for  a  sign,  while 
the  Greeks  seek  after  wisdom  ;  by  which  he  means  that 
while  the  Greeks  project  their  own  intellectual  powers  on- 
ward to  solve  the  problem  of  being  in  human  terms,  the 
Hebrews  begin  with  belief  in  the  divine,  the  personal 
Source  of  all  life,  and  interpret  facts  and  events  as  tokens 
of  His  working.  Hence  their  tendency  to  invest  everything 
they  see  and  experience  with  spiritual  values,  to  explore  life 
in  terms  of  personal  worth  and  conduct. 

The  bearing  of  this  aptitude  of  mind  on  their  distinctive 
gift  in  literature  may  be  expressed  in  a  quotation  from 
Bearing  on  Profcssor  S.  H,  Butcher.  "While  philosophy," 
Literature  }^g  says,  "  had  for  the  Jews  no  meaning,  history 
had  a  deeper  significance  than  it  bore  to  any  other  people. 
It  was  the  chief  factor  in  their  national  unity,  the  'source 
from  which  they  drew  ethical  and  spiritual  enlightenment. 

[37] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Thither  they  turned  as  to  hving  oracles  inscribed  with  the 
finger  of  the  Almighty.  To  history  they  appealed  as  the 
supreme  tribunal  of  God's  justice,"  ^ 

Accordingly  we  see  that  the  whole  body  of  the  Hebrew 
literature,  as  we  have  it  in  the  Bible,  is  closely  interwoven 
with  history :  history  read  as  luminous  with  the  presence 
of  God,  and  therefore  sensed  in  its  inner  meanings,  rather 
than  in  dead  annals  and  chronicles.  Their  laws,  when 
compiled  and  codified,  are  set  in  a  framework  of  history. 
Their  poetry  and  didactics  are  associated  with  historic 
names  and  personages.  Their  prophecy  rises  and  flour- 
ishes as  the  larger  outlooks  of  history  call  for  it,  interpret- 
ing by  vital  principles  the  history  that  is  current  and  the 
historical  crises  that  are  impending.  It  is  in  the  concrete 
events  that  pass  before  their  eyes,  or  are  remembered  from 
their  past,  that  they  trace  the  direct  working  of  Jehovah 
and  the  signs  of  His  will  and  purpose  for  the  future. 

Inhering  with  this  Hebrew  sense  for  the  inner  meanings 
of  history,  a  phase  of  it  indeed,  is  the  fact  that  the  whole 
trend  of  their  literature  is  prophetic.  They  showed  their 
sense  of  this  in  making  up  their  canon  by  calling  the  whole 
line  of  historians  from  Joshua  to  2  Kings  "the  form.er 
prophets.-"  They  were  schooled  to*  the  consciousness  that 
they  were  a  divinely  chosen  people,  a  people  with  a  high 
destiny,  toward  which  the  events  of  their  history  were 
being  shaped  according  to  the  purpose  of  Jehovah.  Hence 
prophecy,  as  a  constant  and  organic  element  of  history, 
has  greater  power,  range,  depth,  and  significance  for  the 
Hebrews  than  for  any  other  people.  The  Hebrew  mind 
is  peculiarly  susceptible  to  it,  and  thinks  in  its  large  terms. 
Accordingly,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  phenomena  of  the 
world's  literature  is  Hebrew  prophecy  ;  it  is  the  supreme 
literary  product  of  this  gifted  race's  genius. 

'  llutcher.  "  Harvard  Lectures  on  Greek  Subjects,"  p.  29. 
[38] 


SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

Notes,  i.  The  Historical  Consciousness  of  tJie  Hebrews.  The 
sum  of  book-learning  was  small ;  men  of  all  ranks  mingled  with  that 
Oriental  freedom  which  is  so  foreign  to  our  habits ;  shrewd  observa- 
tion, a  memory  retentive  of  traditional  lore,  and  the  faculty  of  original 
reflection  took  the  place  of  laborious  study  as  the  ground  of  acknowl- 
edged intellectual  pre-eminence.  —  Smith,  "  The  Prophets  of  Israel," 
p.  126. 

Everything  that  befell  Israel  was  interpreted  by  the  prophets  as 
a  work  of  Jehovah's  hand,  displaying  His  character  and  will  —  not  an 
arbitrary  character  or  a  changeable  will,  but  a  fixed  and  consistent  holy 
purpose,  which  has  Israel  for  its  object  and  seeks  the  true  felicity  of 
the  nation,  but  at  the  same  time  is  absolutely  sovereign  over  Israel, 
and  will  not  give  way  to  Israel's  desires  or  adapt  itself  to  Israel's 
convenience.  —  Smith,  "  The  Prophets  of  Israel,"  p.  70. 

2.  The  A'ature  of  PropJiecy.  Of  course  by  prophecy  is  meant 
something  broader  and  more  rational  than  mere  prediction  of  events ; 
it  is  a  spiritual  presage  based  on  a  grounded  interpretation  of  present 
conditions  and  tendencies.  McCurdy  thus  defines  it  with  primary  refer- 
ence to  the  Second  Isaiah :  "  He  did  not,  strictly  speaking,  foresee 
events ;  he  saw  conditions.  Prediction  is  essentially  a  view  of  details, 
while  the  spiritual  element  in  prophecy  has  primarily  not  to  do  with 
results,  but  with  factors  and  principles  and  their  divinely  constituted 
inner  relations."  —  McCurdy,  "  History,  Prophecy,  and  the  Monu- 
ments," Vol.  Ill,  p.  424. 


II.  The  Hebrew  Heritage 

A  race's  heritage,  what  it  derives  by  bequest  or  endow- 
ment from  its  ancestral  past,  must  be  construed  hberally. 
Not  lands  and  property  alone,  not  such  wealth  as  the 
nation's  industries  have  accumulated,  but  its  inheritance 
of  ideas  and  working  energies,  must  be  included.  The 
Hebrew  heritage,  in  this  comprehensive  sense,  as  the 
prophets  and  historians  came  to  interpret  it,  was  something 
quite  unique  in  racial  experience,  and  contained  the  germs 
of  the  nation's  peculiar  mission.  Some  salient  factors  of 
it  must  here  be  noted  for  their  bearing  on  the  development 
of  their  literature, 

[39] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Although  so  alert  to  respond  to  the  inner  meanings  of 

events,    it  is   not  to  be  expected  that  the   Hebrew  people 

_  ,  .  should  come  into  their  historical  self-consciousness 
From  what 

Point  Esti-  at  once,  or  quickly.  It  is  not  until  long  after 
"^*®  events'  occur  that  their  bearings  and  import  can 

become  clear.  The  histories  that  we  have  in  the  opening 
books  of  the  Bible,  from  Genesis  to  Joshua,  could  not  well 
have  assumed  their  final  form  until  Israel  had  come  into 
possession  of  its  land  and  developed  its  national  and  or- 
ganic principle  to  the  point  where  it  could  act  and  be  acted 
upon  among  the  peoples  of  the  earth.  Then  their  men  of 
insight  could  see  and  understand  the  way  in  which  they 
had  been  led,  and  the  direction  in  which  their  experience 
pointed.  Before  that,  while  the  people  were  slowly  emerg- 
ing from  primitive  conditions  to  an  organized  monarchy, 
their  literary  utterances  would  naturally  be  concerned  with 
affairs  too  immediate  and  limited  to  have  permanent  Bibli- 
cal value,  except  as  here  and  there  some  song  or  story  had 
the  larger  touch  which  fitted  it  to  survive  its  time.  From 
these  scanty  remainders  of  contemporary  literature  we  must 
choose  some  work  from  which  as  a  landmark  we  can  reckon 
both  backwards  and  forwards  :  backward  toward  the  tradi- 
tions that  the  people  have  in  store ;  forward  toward  the 
destiny  that  is  beginning  to  dawn  upon  their  minds. 

Fortunately  such  a  landmark  exists,  whose  authenticity 
as  a  work  contemporary  with  its  event  is  not  seriously 
questioned,  and  which  scholars  praise  as  "'  one  of  the  most 
ancient  and  magnificent  remains  of  early  Hebrew  litera- 
ture." ^  It  has  already  been  mentioned  as  our  starting 
point  :^  the  Song  of  Deborah,  in  Judges  v.  It  is  a  song 
of  victory,  commemorating  the  wonderful  deliverance  of 
Israel  from  a  twenty  years'  oppression  under  Jabin  King 
of   Canaan  ;    and  a  song  of   praise   to  Jehovah,  who  had 

^  Oesterly,  in  Hastings'  "  Biblical  Dictionary  "  (one-volume  edition). 
2  See  above,  p.  5.  > 

[40] 


SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

inspired  that  cooperation  of  the  tribes  which  under  Him 
had  made  the  victory  possible.  The  song  dates  from  about 
a  century  after  the  IsraeUtes  had  effected  entrance  into  the 
promised  land,  while  they  were  struggling  to  obtain  a  stable 
foothold  and  independence  therein,  and  while  the  memory 
of  their  deliverance  from  Egypt  had  still  the  vigor  of  a 
motive  power  among  the  scattered  tribes.  ■ 

Note.  The  Significance  of  Debora/t^s  Song.  The  Hebrew  tribes 
were  scattered  in  little  communities  over  the  land  of  Canaan,  both 
east  and  west  of  the  Jordan;  and  as  the  song  recognizes  they  had 
their  various  local  interests.  But  Deborah  assumes  that  they  may  all 
be  appealed  to  on  the  ground  of  a  common  tribal  unity  and  a  common 
loyalty  to  Jehovah.  It  is  the  thought  of  their  God  Jehovah,  and  of 
their  obligation  to  come  to  His  help  against  the  mighty  (cf.  vs.  23),  which 
makes  a  ground  of  appeal  for  all  the  tribes.  Jehovah  has  come  to  fight 
for  them  from  His  residence  in  the  Sinai  region  (vss.  4,  5) ;  the  loyal 
tribes  have  come  from  their  scattered  homes  to  the  plain  of  Esdraelon ; 
Deborah  herself,  coming  from  far  in  the  hill-country  of  Ephraim,  has 
stirred  up  Barak  in  his  northern  home  to  throw  himself  into  the  common 
cause  ;  and  all,  fighting  shoulder  to  shoulder,  are  sure  that  their  enemies 
are  the  enemies  of  Jehovah  (cf.  vs.  31  j;  they  see  by  the  event  also  that 
Jehovah  has  been  in  the  battle,  too,  by  bringing  the  powers  of  nature 
to  their  aid  (vss.  20,  21).  The  song  recognizes  the  danger  that  the 
tribes  had  been  in.  of  losing  national  identity  by  choosing  new  gods 
(vs.  8 ;  cf.  Deut.  xxxii,  i  7),  and  of  being  absorbed  in  their  own  clan- 
nish affairs  as  were  some  of  the  tribes  (vss.  15-17);  and  the  fact  that 
a  remnant  (vs.  1 3)  came  down  and  risked  their  lives  for  independence 
is  the  reassuring  motive  of  the  song : 

For  that  the  leaders  took  the  lead  in  Israel.. 
For  that  the  people  offered  themselves  willingly, 
Bless  ye  Jehovah." 

An  author  implies  an  audience ;  a  song  reveals  the 
mental  and  emotional  key  both  of  singer  and  of  hearers. 
Let  us  take  occasion  of  this  glimpse  into  contemporary 
conditions  to  inquire  what  fund  of  idea  and  sentiment  the 
people  had  inherited  from  their  past,  and  what  hopes  for 
their  corporate  future.  We  may  note  the  contents  of  this 
heritage  under  two  heads. 

[41] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

I 

The  Allotted  Land.  It  was  for  foothold  and  security  in 
the  land  of  Canaan  that  the  Hebrews  were  fighting ;  it  was 
for  victory  over  a  people  that  had  colonized  the  land  before 
them  that  Deborah  sang  her  praise  to  Jehovah.  They  had 
not  really  inherited  the  land.  Their  ancestor  Abraham  had 
owned  only  a  burial  place  therein  (Gen.  xxiii ;  cf.  Acts  vii, 
5)  ;  and  the  other  patriarchs  had  roamed  at  will  over  com- 
mon pasture  lands,  without  building  or  buying  (cf.  Heb.  xi, 
9,  13).  Thus  the  land  was  an  allotment,  not  an  inherit- 
ance ;  and  w^hat  they  inherited  was  a  traditional  claim  to  it, 
which  they  traced  to  a  promise  made  by  Jehovah  to  Abra- 
ham (Exod.  vi,  8  ;  xxxiii,  1-3).  Their  right  to  it  vvas  after 
all  the  right  of  conquest,  like  any  invasion  ;  but  it  contained 
the  germ  of  a  new  and  till  then  unknown  motive.  Their 
invasion  was  not  predatory,  like  a  Bedouin  raid ;  not  a  grasp- 
ing for  power  and  aggrandizement,  like  the  later  Assyrian 
campaigns.  Their  motive  was  peaceful,  as  befitted  a  race 
of  herdsmen  and  small  farmers  ;  but  it  was  vitalized  also 
with  the  faith  of  their  ancestor  Abraham,  which  gave  a  reli- 
gious value  to  the  land  where  he  had  li\ed  and  died.  It  was 
theirs,  because  his  faith  in  Jehovah's  promise  was  theirs. 

Note.  The  Promise  to  AbraJiam.  For  the  successive  stages  of  the 
covenant  by  which  the  land  was  promised  to  Abraham  and  his  posterity, 
see  Gen.  xii,  1-3;  xiii,  14-17;  xv,  5-14;  xxii.  15-18.  These  of  course 
are  described  in  the  form  taken  by  the  later  finished  history:  but  the 
tradition  of  the  promise  was  rooted  in  the  primitive  tribal  consciousness. 
For  the  vitality  of  this  tradition  in  Hebrew  poetry,  see  Psa.  cv,  8-1  2. 

The  Israelite's  ardent  attachment  to  his  land  is  shown  in 
the  innumerable  passages  where  its  scenery,  its  weather,  its 
products,  its  occupations  are  dwelt  upon  ;  but  beyond  this, 
too,  it  was  to  him  a  mirror  of  the  great  men  and  great  deeds 
of  history.  The  patriarchal  age,  between  which  and  his  own 
a  chasm  intervened,  was  kept  vividl)'  in  mind  by  the  altars 

[43] 


SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

erected  at  places  where  the  patriarchs  had  dwelt,  —  Hebron, 
Mamre,  Beersheba,  Bethel,  Shechem  ;  all  of  which  places 
had  their  ancient  stories  and  prophetic  suggestions.  No 
other  nation  has  more  truly  heeded  the  spirit  expressed  in 
Tennyson's  poem  : 

Love  thou  thy  land,  with  love  far-brought 
From  out  the  storied  Past,  and  used 
Within  the  Present,  but  transfused 
Thro'  future  time  'by  power  of  thought. 

In  a  true  sense  their  land  was  to  them  like  a  book,  in  which 
they  read  histories  and  prophecies  full  of  present  uses.  We 
may  note  its  meanings  in  two'  aspects. 

The  favorite  Biblical  description  of  Palestine  calls  it  '"  a 
land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey  "  ;  this,  however,  is  the 
As  a  School  language  of  enthusiasm.  A  more  discriminating 
of  Character  account  of  it  is  ascribed  to  Moses  in  the  Book 
of  Deuteronomy,  where,  before  the  Israelites  enter  it,  he 
contrasts  it  with  the  land  they  have"  left.  "  For,"  he  says, 
"  the  land,  whither  thou  goest  in  to  possess  it,  is  not  as 
the  land  of  Egypt,  from  whence  ye  came  out,  where  thou 
sowedst  thy  seed,  and  wateredst  it  with  thy  foot,  as  a  garden 
of  herbs  ;  but  the  land,  whither  ye  go  over  to  possess  it,  is 
a  land  of  hills  and  valleys,  and  drinketh  water  of  the  rain 
of  heaven,  a  land  which  Jehovah  thy  God  careth  for :  the 
eyes  of  Jehovah  thy  God  are  always  upon  it,  from  the  be- 
ginning of  the  year  even  unto  the  end  of  the  year."  ^  This 
description  distinguishes  between  a  land  which  needs  little 
outlay  of  labor  and  a  land  which  requires  strenuous  care 
and  attention.  Of  this  latter  sort  was  the  land  of  Canaan. 
It  had  great  diversities  of  landscape,  elevation,  soil  and 
climate  ;  great  fertility,  too,  under  proper  cultivation  ;  but  it 
demanded  unremitting  diligence  and  industry  on  the  part 
of  the  possessor,  and  ceaseless  vigilance  against  marauders 

1  Deut.  xi,  10-12. 

[43] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

and  wild  beasts  ;  was  much  exposed  also  to  blights,  plagues 
of  insects,  and  ravages  of  storm  and  drought.  The  effort 
to  meet  such  conditions,  and  to  subdue  the  land  to  their 
use,  would  call  forth  in  the  Israelites  many  of  the  most 
sterling  elements  of  character:  steadiness,  alertness,  devoted- 
ness,  persistence,  patience, — virtues  which  under  the  gen- 
eral term  meekness  are  said  to  inherit  the  land  (cf.  Psa. 
xxxvii,  II  ;  Matt,  v,  5).  Such  resolute  traits  as  these,  off- 
setting and  supplementing  their -native  intensity  of  faith  and 
will,  were  well  fitted  to  develop  the  strong  character  needed 
for  the  evolution  of  a  world  purpose  ;  and  this  land  was  the 
divinely  allotted  school  for  it. 

It  is  worth  while  to  note,  in  view  of  what  later  came  of 
it,  the  seemingly  designed  fitness  of  this  "least  of  all  lands" 
A  th  Th  -  ^^  ^^  ^^  ^^  were  the  laboratory  for  the  shaping 
ter  of  a  Great  of  an  eternal  idea  ;  the  theater  for  the  evolution 
Design  q£  ^  history  and  a  literature  which  should  be  for 

the  enlightening  and  ennobling  of  all  mankind. 

We  have  already  mentioned  its  central  location,  at  the 
eastern  end  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  and  as  nearly  as 
may  be  at  the  meeting  place  of  the  three  great  continents 
Asia,  Africa,  and  Europe.  As  for  its  connections  by  sea, 
it  is  comparatively  isolated  from  other  lands,  owing  to  the 
lack  of  good  harbors  on  its  coast.  As  to  its  land  connec- 
tions, it  may  be  regarded  as  virtually  an.  oasis  between  two 
stretches  of  desert ;  beyond  which  latter  were  situated,  in 
Bible  times,  the  two  great  centers  of  ancient  culture  and 
civilization.  These  were  :  Egypt,  across  the  Sinaitic  penin- 
sula to  the  southwest ;  and  Chaldea,  with  its  daughter 
monarchy  Assyria,  in  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  region,  be- 
yond the  great  Syrian  desert  to  the  east.  This  intermediate 
land  of  Palestine,  then,  was  the  bridge  of  communication 
between  these  world  centers  ;  across  which  lay  the  interna- 
tional routes  of  travel,  traffic,  and  war.  The  caravan  roads 
from   Egypt  and    Ethiopia,   passing  up    the   western   coast 

[44] 


SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

from  Gaza  around  the  headland  of  Carmel,  crossed  the 
plain  of  Esdraelon,  where  Deborah's  song  of  victory  was 
sung,  and  then,  rounding  the  northern  end  of  the  Sea  of 
Galilee,  stretched  onward  past  Mount  Hermon  to  Damascus, 
and  still  onward  to  Mesopotamia.  Thus  Palestine,  though 
so  sequestered,  and  in  size  too  insignificant  to  be  of  impor- 
tance among  the  leading  nations,  was  yet  in  the  very  midst 
of  the  energies  and  activities  of  the  ancient  world,  and  felt 
the  pulsation  of  all  its  movements. 

It  was  not  in  the  nature  of  the  Hebrews  to  remain  indif- 
ferent spectators  of  the  movements  of  things  around  them. 
With  their  native  genius  for  reading  the  signs  of  the  times 
in  events,  their  prophets  and  historians  were  keen  critics 
of  their  neighbors,  and  curious  observers  of  the  course  of 
empire.  This  aptitude  finds  much  expression  in  their 
literature.  Their  historians  trace  their  kinship  with  the 
nations  round  them,  —  Edom,  Moab,  Ammon,  Ishmael, 
Syria.  Their  prophets  have  oracles  not  only  for  their  own 
people  but  for  their  neighbor  nations,  —  as  one  can  read 
in  Amos,  Isaiah,  Nahum,  Obadiah,  Jeremiah,  and  Ezekiel. 
Along  with  their  own  national  experience  they  acquire  a 
sense  that  their  land  is  destined  to  be  a  center  of  light 
and  guidance  for  other  nations  as  well  (cf.  Isa.  ii,  2-4  ; 
Ix,  1-5)  ;  and  that  however  the  Hebrews  may  be  dispersed 
among  the  nations,  yet  their  capital  and  mother  city  is  here, 
and  they  retain  the  customs  and  religion  learned  here. 
In  other  words,  from  this  centrally  located  land  there  was 
destined  to  go  forth,  through  its  literature  and  its  developed 
character,  a  leavening  and  penetrative  influence  into  all  the 
world.  And  from  the  beginning  of  their  residence  there 
the  minds  of  their  prophets  and  leaders  were  keyed  to  the 
idea  that  God  had  placed  them  there  in  the  working  out  of 
some  momentous  design. 


[45] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

II 

The  Inherited  Fund  of  Ideas.  When  Deborah  sang  of 
tribal  cooperation  and  divine  aid,  she  shaped  her  ode  in 
conformity  with  ideas  that  had  come  in  with  her  race's  birth 
and  grown  with  its  growth.  Her  hearers  had  a  fund  of  vital 
conceptions  and  sentiments  on  which  she  and  all  the  leaders 
of  Israel  after  her  could  draw,  and  to  which  they  could 
appeal.  This  was  their  real  heritage  ;  more  truly  than  the 
land,  which  was  their  culture-field,  or  than  their  prosperity 
and  freedom,  which  were  but  adjuncts  of  their  national  suc- 
cess. It  was  their  unique  fund  of  ideas,  inherited  from  long 
generations,  which  laid  the  foundation  for  their  later  power 
in  the  world. 

We  are  not  concerned  here  to  trace  the  ideas  which  they 
had  in  common  with  the  great  Semitic  stock  from  which 
they  were  derived.  These  will  come  up  for  consideration 
later.^  Their  forms  of  worship  were  like  those  of  the  com- 
munities around  them  ;  which  communities  themselves  were 
Semitic,  inheriting  much  from  a  common  source.  The  racial 
faith  and  temperament  inherited  from  the  patriarchs  has 
already  been  noted  — not  so  much  an  idea  as  a  subconscious 
nature  and  temperament.  Nor  are  we  concerned  with  heredi- 
tary customs,  many  of  them  crude  and  barbaric,  which  they 
will  naturally  outgrow  or  refine  as  they  advance  to  higher 
grades  of  civilization.  We  are  to  take  note  rather  of  certain 
ideas  which  differentiate  the  Israelite  people  from  others ; 
ideas  which,  being  comparatively  recent,  have  the  vigor  and 
vitality  of  newness  still  upon  them.  We  may  regard  these 
as  the  formative  principles  of  the  nation's  thought  and 
religion  and  literature. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  with  this  Song  of  Deborah 
we  are  striking  into  the  history  of  these  Israelites  when 
they  have  been  only  about  a  century  released  from  an  era 

^  See  Chapter  III,  Looking  Before  and  After. 
[46] 


SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

of  Egyptian  bondage.  It  was  to  that  wonderful  deliverance, 
with  its  attendant  circumstances  and  revelations,  that  they 
traced  their  beginning  as  a  nation.  Before  that  their  unit 
of  corporate  life  had  been  that  of  the  family,  derived  from 
the  primitive  conditions  of  the  patriarchs.  On  their  way 
from  Egypt  to  Canaan,  however,  a  transition  which  took 
a  full  generation  of  wilderness  training,  new  ideas  must  be 
instilled  into  their  minds,  and  emphasized  by  momentous 
events,  to  fit  them  for  the  freedom  and  development  that 
awaited  them.  These  we  gather  from  the  history  recounted 
in  the  books  of  Exodus  and  Numbers.  Three  of  the  main 
fundamental  ideas,  all  derived  from  concrete  historical  events, 
we  will  consider. 

While  the  Hebrews  were  still  in  Egypt,  sunk  in  apathy 
and  spirit-broken  by  oppression,  Moses,  one  of  their  kins- 
1.  The  God  i"'"'en  of  the  tribe  of  Levi,  who  by  a  strange 
Who  Is  providence    had    obtained   a   thorough    education 

(cf.  Acts  vii,  22)  but  then  had  been  for  forty  years  an 
outlaw  in  the  land  of  Midian,  received  from  God  a  com- 
mission to  return  and,  putting  himself  at  their  head,  lead 
them  to  the  land  promised  to  their  fathers.  It  was  a  com- 
mission to  be  the  founder  and  lawgiver  of  a  nation,  the 
pioneer  in  a  new  historical  movement.  According  to  the 
ideas  of  his  time  each  nation  or  community  was  known  by 
the  name  of  its  tutelar  deity  ;  it  was  natural  therefore  that 
Moses'  first  inquiry  would  be  for  the  name  of  the  God 
who  thus  commissioned  him,  that  he  might  report  it  to  his 
people.  The  divine  answer  assured  him  that  this  was  no 
new  or  unfamiliar  God  but  the  one  whom  they  and  their 
fathers  had  always  worshiped  (Exod.  iii,  i6).  The  name, 
however,  was  new  to  them,  and  had  a  meaning  which  they 
could  appropriate  to  their  needs  and  ideals  as  citizens  of 
a  new  commonwealth. 

This  revealing  of  a  new  name  for  God  was  like  taking  a 
conception  of  deity  which  had  always  been  a  kind  of  half 

L47] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

real  abstraction  and  making  it  individual  and  concrete.  The 
name  by  which  the  patriarchs  had  worshiped  their  deity  was 
El  Shaddai  (Exod,  vi,  3),  which  we  translate  "  God  Al- 
mighty"; the  word  for  God,  "El,"  which  still  survives  in  the 
Mohammedan  name  "Allah,"  meaning  "might"  or  "power." 
In  the  scripture  it  is  oftenest  used  in  the  plural,  "  Elohim," 
as  if  one  should  say  "  The  Powers,"  but  construed  with  a 
singular  verb.  He  was  conceived,  it  would  seem,  as  an  un- 
differentiated power  in  nature  and  events,  but  with  no  clear 
idea  of  moral  character  or  of  personal  relation.  Such  a  God 
could  indeed  have  become  well-nigh  lost  to  the  enslaved  Isra- 
elites in  the  multitude  of  local  and  natural  deities  of  which 
Egypt  was  full.  The  new  nam.e,  vouchsafed  at  Moses'  re- 
quest, was  first  given  not  as  a  name  but  as  a  meaning,  from 
which  the  name  should  be  coined.  "  And  God  said  unto 
Moses,  I  AM  THAT  I  AM  ;  and  He  said,  Thus  shalt  thou  say 
unto  the  children  of  Israel,  I  am  hath  sent  me  unto  you  " 
(Exod.  iii,  14).  This  was  merely  putting  into  the  first  per- 
son ('Eh'yeh)  what  they  were  to  express  and  understand  in 
the  third.  The  name  was  "Yahweh,"  or  "Jehovah"  (nTH''), 
and  in  its  comprehensive  meaning  was  to  be  understood  as 
"  He  who  is,"  or  "  The  God  who  is." 

This  name  plays  so  commanding  a  part  in  the  whole 
experience  and  literature  of  the  Israelites  that  a  further  con- 
sideration of  it  is  here  in  place.  It  is  a.  peculiarity  of  the 
Hebrew  verb  that  it  has  no  present  tense,  in  our  feeling  of 
the  term.  Its  two  tenses  are  past  and  future ;  and  this 
name,  being  in  the  future,  signifies  more  nearly  "  He  who 
will  be  "  than  "  He  who  is."  But  even  the  Hebrew  past  and 
future  tenses  are  not  like  ours.  Instead  of  denoting  simply 
time,  they  denote  rather  completed  action  (or  state)  and  con- 
tinufjus  action.  We  come  still  nearer  to  the  meaning  of  this 
name,  then,  by  understanding  it  "  He  who  is  being,"  "  He 
who  eternally  is."  Matthew  Arnold's  designation,  "The  Eter- 
nal," does  not  give  quite  the  main  emphasis  of  the  term  ; 

[48] 


SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

it  may  perhaps  best  be  represented  in  modern  phrase  as 
"He  who  really  is,"  or  "The  God  Reality,"  —  the  Being 
who  is  and  will  be,  as  distinguished  from  some  Power 
which  seems  to  be,  or  which  can  be  changed,  or  which  is 
conjectured  to  be.  The  verb  is  left  unpredicated.  What 
He  will  eternally  be  it  is  for  men's  experience  to  find  out : 
all  that  they  need  —  guide,  protector,  defender,  friend ;  or, 
if  they  are  disloyal  and  false  —  judge,  correcter,  chastiser. 
And  the  more  sincerely  personal  their  felt  relation  to  Him, 
the  more  real  will  He  be  to  them.  It  is  as  if  the  loftiest 
theme  of  their  literature  and  thinking  were  condensed  into  a 
word,  whose  depth  and  breadth  of  meaning  are  inexhaustible. 
The  Israelites'  primal  relation  to  this  newly  named  God 
is  very  simple.  When.  Moses  receives  the  name  and  the 
duty  they  do  not  yet  know  Him,  and  they  are  not  arbitrarily 
commanded  or  compelled  to  serve  Him.  He  invites  them 
rather  to  take  Him  on  trust,  and  make  the  venture  for  free- 
dom in  reliance  on  His  promise.  The  token  by  which  they 
will  know  that  their  deliverer  is  indeed  Jehovah  is  that  later 
they  will  serve  Him  on  that  same  mountain  where  He  is 
now  talking  with  Moses  (Exod.  iii,  12).  Thus  from  the  out- 
set of  their  struggle  for  home  and  independence  they  are 
in  the  conscious  attitude  of  a  nation  continually  realizing 
and  verifying  a  promise,  discovering  through  experience 
the  reality  of  their  national   Deity. 

Notes,  i.  Written  and  Oral  Use  of  t]ie  Name.  It  will  be  noted 
that  in  the  Authorized  and  English  Revised  versions  of  the  Bible  the 
name  "  Jehovah  "  occurs  but  seldom,  while  in  the  American  Revised  it 
occurs  very  frequently ;  and  that  wherever  it  occurs  in  the  American 
Revised  the  other  versions  have  the  title  Lord  printed  in  capitals.  It  is 
also  asserted  by  scholars. that  "  Jehovah  "  is  not  the  right  spelling  of  the; 
name,  but  "  Jahveh,"  or  rather  "  Yahveh."  These  variations  rise  from 
the  curious  history  connected  with  the  name.  The  Hebrew  alphabet, 
it  must  be  premised,  consists  only  of  consonants,  and  until  long  after 
the  language  had  ceased  to  be  a  living  one  the  name  was  written  in 
the  four  consonants  YHVH.    In  the  later  writing  of  the  language  vowel 

[49] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

signs  were  added  to  the  words  above  and  below  the  Une ;  but  as  the 
Hebrews,  from  excess  of  reverence,  never  pronounced  the  name  of 
their  Deity,  the  true  pronunciation  had  become  lost.  When  in  reading 
they  came  to  the  name  they  substituted  for  it  the  title  "  Lord  "  (Hebrew 
"  Adonai  ") ;  and  it  was  the  vowels  of  this  title  that  were  added  to  the 
four  consonants  YHVH,  making  the  name  "  YeHoVaH."  The  Author- 
ized version  has  retained  the  title  Lord,  while  the  American  Revised  has 
adopted  the  name  "Jehovah,"  but  with  the  vowels  belonging  to  "Adonai." 

2.  The  A^anie  Attributed  Earlier.  In  the  J  account  of  the  early 
patriarchal  times  the  name  "Jehovah,"  or  "Jehovah  Elohim,"  is  used 
in  connection  with  events  much  earlier  than  this  revelation  of  the  name 
to  Moses ;  this  because  in  the  naive  idea  of  this  popular  source  no  time 
is  contemplated  when  Jehovah  was  not  the  God  of  the  Hebrews  and 
of  all  mankind.  For  a  similar  though  somewhat  more  dogmatic  reason 
the  P  source,  in  Gen.  iv,  26,  dates  the  beginning  of  Jehovah  worship 
in  the  days  of  Enosh  the  grandson  of  Adam. 

3.  The  Name  in  Natio?ial  Use.  After  the  kingdoms  of  Judah  and 
Israel  are  established,  the  name  of  the  national  Deity  is  compounded 
with  other  words  in  the  names  given  to  kings  and  prophets.  A  short- 
ened form  "Jah"  (cf.  Exod.  xv,  2,  Psa.  Ixviii,  4,  margin)  is  generally 
employed  in  composition,  especially  at  the  end  of  a  name.  The  com- 
pound with  the  divine  name  may  be  recognized,  wherever  it  occurs,  by 
the  prefix  Jo  or  Jeho  (for  example,  Joram.  Jehoshaphat),  or  by  the  final 
jah  or  iah  (for  example,  Elijah,  Isaiah,  Hezekiah,  Jeremiah).  The  word 
"  Hallelujah,"  which  occurs  many  times  in  the  later  psalms,  is  a  liturgical 
compound  meaning  "  Praise  ye  Jehovah."  The  name  is  also  joined  with 
other  names  to.  mark  momentous  junctures  in  history;  for  example, 
Jehovah-jireh,  Gen.  xxii,  14;  Jehovah-nissi,  E.xod.  xvii,  15;  Jehovah- 
shalom,  Jud.  vi,   24. 

The  natural  tendency  of  nations,  as  has  been  remarked  by 
historians,  is  to  glorify  their  beginnings.    No  nation  would 

_,  willingly  own  to  a  primal  state  of  slavery  unless 

Verifying  it  were  undeniably  so.  It  is  characteristic  of  the 
Deliverance  j^gb^ews,  however,  that  the  birth  of  their  nation, 
the  initial  event  of  which  they  were  proud,  is  identified  with 
a  great  deliverance  from  bondage,  a  deliverance  which  in 
themselves  they  w-ere  powerless  to  effect,  and  which  was 
rendered  hard  and  thankless  by  their  unfaith  and  rebellion. 
Thus   the   idea  which  they  had   inherited,   and  which  was 

[50] 


SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

fostered  as  a  motive  by  their  prophets,  was  that  not  their  valor 
or  power  or  des'ert  had  made  them  a  nation,  but  the  loving- 
kindness  of  Jehovah,  who  had  chosen  them  to  be  a  peculiar 
people  with  a  unique  mission  and  destiny  among  the  nations. 

This  deliverance  from  Egypt  was  the  direct  verification 
of  Jehovah's  promise.  He  had  through  Moses  summoned 
them  to  take  Him,  the  God  with  the  new  name,  as  it  were 
on  trial ;  and  as  they  took  Him  at  His  word  and  made  their 
dash  for  freedom,  naturally  they  were  alert  to  discover  signs 
that  He  was  with  them  and  for  them. 

Their  first  identification  of  their  new  God  was  at  the  Red 
Sea,  where,  seemingly  entrapped,  with  "'  the  foe  behind  and 
the  deep  before,"  they  made  a  marvelous  escape  through 
the  bed  of  the  sea,  which  a  strong  wind  had  laid  bare, 
and  then,  wind  and  tide  shifting,  saw  their  pursuers  over- 
whelmed and  drowned.  In  the  story  of  this  deliverance  is 
preserved  a  magnificent  song  of  thanksgiving  (Exod.  xv, 
i-i8),  of  which  the  nucleus  at  least  is  contemporary  with 
the  event.  It  was  sung  antiphonally  by  male  and  female 
choirs,  Miriam  the  sister  of  Aaron  leading  the  women 
with  timbrels  and  dances  (Exod.  Xv,  i,  20).  It  expresses, 
largely  in  fervid  description,  their  realization  of  the  stupen- 
dous event,  and  their  sense  of  having  found  a  God  and 
Deliverer  whom  they  could  name  and  know.' 

I  will  sing  unto  Jehovah,  for  he  hath  triumphed  gloriously ; 

The  horse  and  his  rider  hath  he  thrown  into  the  sea. 

Jehovah  is  my  strength  and  song, 

And  he  is  become  my  salvation  ; 

This  is  my  God,  and  I  will  praise  him ; 

My  father's  God,  and  I  will  exalt  him. 

It  is  noteworthy  'that  with  this  first  identification  of  their 
deliverer  they  form  a  corresponding  idea  of  his  nature  : 

Jehovah  is  a  man  of  war : 
Jehovah  is  his  name. 

It  is  their  first  clear  identification  of  God  with  experience. 

[51] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

This  fact  of  deliverance  by  the  direct  action  of  divine 
power  became  from  this  time  the  fundamental  idea  of  the 
Israelite  people ;  an  idea  which,  under  the  name  of  salva- 
tion, took  on  a  more  spiritual  sense  as  their  experience 
became  more  inward.  They  not  only  dated  their  nation's 
beginning  from  it,  but  had  constant  recourse  to  it  in  times 
of  trial  or  extremity.  The  Book  of  Judges,  for  instance,  is 
all  written  to  give  numerous  cases  wherein  Jehovah,  while 
a  stable  government  was  gradually  being  formed,  rescued 
the  people  through  the  agency  of  champions  from  the  help- 
less condition  into  which  they  had  fallen.  In  this  initial 
deliverance  at  the  Red  Sea  the  people  had  no  active  part ; 
they  had  only  to  "  stand  still  and  see  the  salvation  of 
Jehovah  "  (Exod.  xiv,  13).  As  time  went  on,  however,  they 
learned  to  associate  His  work  more  intimately  with  their 
own  endeavors.  In  Deborah's  song,  for  instance,  He  is 
recognized  as  having  come  up  from  His  home  in  Sinai 
when  the  Israelites  are  hard  pressed  in  battle,  to  sweep 
away  their  foes  by  the  storm  and  the  flooded  river  Kishon 
(Judg.  V,  20,  21);  but  it  is  to  deliver  a  people  who  have 
already  come  '"  to  the  help  of  Jehovah  against  the  mighty" 
(Judg.  V,  23).  So  gradually  their  experience  teaches  them 
that  in  this  matter  of  deliverance  the  human  is  to  cooperate 
with  the  divine';  but  for  a  long  period  their  successes  are 
brought  about  in  a  way  that  verifies  the  power  of  Jehovah 
as  the  real  Deliverer.  A  typical  instance  of  this  is  the  case 
of  Gideon,  who  wrought  a  signal  deliverance  from  the  Midi- 
anites  by  a  clever  stratagem,  but  not  until,  by  JehOH^ah's 
command,  he  had  reduced  his  army  from  thirty-two  thou- 
sand to  three  hundred,  "lest  Israel  vaunt  themselves  against 
me,  saying,  '  Mine  own  hand  hath  saved  me  ' "  (Judg.  vii,  2). 

With  the  refining  idea  of  deliverance,  from  an  external 
rescue  to  an  inner  salvation,  came  a  more  rational  idea 
of  the  means  by  which  God  made  Himself  known.  First 
identifying  Him,  as  in  the  songs  of  Miriam  and  Deborah, 

[52] 


SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

with  the  violent  and  exceptional  phenomena  of  nature,  — 
storm  and  lightning  and  earthquake,  forces  made  to  destroy, 
—  it  is  by  slow  experience  that  they  learn  to  associate  Him 
first  with  beneficent  forces  of  sunshine  and  rain,  and  later 
with  the  inner  life  of  men.  It  is  a  gradual  growth  in  the 
verification  of  God's  working  from  material  to  spiritual.  It 
may  be  illustrated  by  an  incident  in  the  life  of  the  prophet 
Elijah,  whose  idea  of  verifying  Jehovah's  reality  to  Israel 
was  by  means  of  famine  and  miracle.  In  a  time  of  reaction 
and  doubt,  when  all  his  work  seemed  to  have  been  in 
vain  (i  Kings  xix),  the  prophet  went  to  find  Jehovah  at 
His  ancient  dwelling  place  in  Horeb,  and  there  learned  that 
neither  wind  nor  earthquake  nor  fire  is  the  real  manifesta- 
tion of  the  divine  to  man,  but  "a  still  small  voice,"  speak- 
ing as  it  were  within  the  soul  (i  Kings  xix,  12).  This 
incident  may  serve  as  a  kind  of  landmark  in  the  progres- 
sive refinement  of  the  idea  which  lay  at  the  basis  of  their 
religious  life.  It  enabled  them  to  verify  the  word  and 
continued  power  of  their  Deliverer  in  terms  not  merely  of 
nature  and  war  but  of  the  inner  life  of  manhood. 

The  series  of  events  by  which  the  Israelites  were  trans- 
formed from  a  race  enslaved  and  spirit-broken  to  a  people 

Th  M  -  conscious  of  a  unity  and  coordination  of  interests 
tuai  Relation  culminates  in  a  covenant,  or  compact,  made  at 
by  Covenant  j^Q^j^t  Sinai,  after  the  people  had  found  by  a 
considerable  experience  that  Jehovah  was  keeping  His  word. 
As  they  inherited  the  tradition  of  it,  this  compact  was  solem- 
nized by  portentous  natural  phenomena  on  the  sacred  moun- 
tain (Exod.  xix,  16-20)  ;  while  to  Moses,  who  was  called  to 
the  top  of  the  mountain,  were  given  two  tablets  of  stone, 
on  which  were  engraved  the  ten  "words,"  or  fundamental 
commands  of  the  law  {Exod.  xx),  and,  as  it  was  believed, 
certain  oral  instructions  constituting  a  primitive  code  for  a 
people  in  their  state  and  situation  (Exod.  xxi-xxiii).  The 
chapters  which  contain  this  oldest  stratum  of  the  law  are 

[53] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

called  the  Book  of  the  Covenant  (Exod.  xxiv,  7).  To  this 
covenant  the  people  agreed  at  Sinai,  soon  after  their  escape 
from  Egypt.  Agair^  at  Shechem,  when  the  possession  of 
the  land  was  assured  to  them,  they  solemnly  renewed  their 
covenant  of  loyalty  to  Jehovah,  and  their  promise  to  serve 
no  other  god  (Josh,  xxiv,  19-25). 

Such  was  the  Israelites'  conscious  idea  of  the  origin  of 
their  religion  and  their  corporate  life.  It  differs  from  that 
of  other  nations  in  being  so  realistic  ;  and  merits  attention 
for  the  unique  relation  it  recognizes  between  the  human 
and  the  divine  —  a  relation  in  which  inheres  the  vitality 
of  their  religion,  as  compared  with  other  religions  of  the 
world.  All  nations  had  a  sense  of  an  unseen  power  or 
powers  controlling  the  affairs  •  of  nature  and  man  ;  it  is  a 
sense  native  to  humanity.  The  great  effort  of  the  ages  has 
been  to  establish  rational  and  intelligent  communication 
with  that  Power.  If  it  is  sensed  as  merely  an  unknown 
and  arbitrary  Autocracy  in  nature,  the  varieties  and  contrasts 
of  natural  phenomena  suggest  polytheism,  a  multitude  of 
discordant  powers.  Imagination  conceives  of  these  under 
natural  forms  —  suns  and  stars,  gods  of  thunder  and  storm 
and  earthquake,  or  beasts  of  prey  and  burden  ;  and  the  con- 
ception of  the  unseen  has  little  if  any  moral  content.  It  is 
naturally  regarded  accordingly  as  a  power  not  to  be  loved 
but  used  for  human  purposes  ;  and  the  way  to  secure  his 
good  will  is  either  to  bribe  him  by  costly  offerings  and  pre- 
scribed rites,  or,  in  cases  of  doubt,  by  some  occult  means 
of  divination  and  magic.  All  worship  is  thus  rendered 
doubtful  and  tentative,  and  all  service  either  an  unchosen 
slavery  or  a  capricious  opportunism. 

The  Israelites  were  the  one  nation  of  antiquity  to  depart 
radically  from  this  idolatrous  idea.  This  they  did  by  taking 
their  experience  as  revealing  a  personal  Being,  with  a  mind 
and  will  like  their  own,  and  after  preliminary  trial  of  His 
good  will  by  making  a  solemn  compact  or  covenant  with  Him. 

[54] 


SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

In  a  compact  the  two  parties  stand  on  common  and  in  a 
sense  equal  ground.  Both  are  doing  what  they  see  is  good, 
and  what  they  freely  agree  to  do ;  both,  for  the  sake  of 
certain  desirable  objects,  bind  themselves  to  certain  duties 
and  obligations.  The  simple  'terms  of  the  Israelites'  com- 
pact were  so  well  known  to  all,  that  prophets  and  leaders 
could  appeal  to  them  as  a  matter  of  loyalty  and  conscience. 
By  it  Jehovah  promises  to  carry  out  the  deliverance  of 
which  He  has  already  given  a  foretaste  and  sample  :  to  be 
their  Guide,  Defender,  Saviour,  Judge.  On  their  part  they 
bind  themselves  to  have  Him  alone  as  their  God,  discarding 
all  others  ;  to  learn  His  nature,  and  to  obey  His  will  both 
in  worship  of  Him  and  in  conduct  toward  one  another. 

The  solemn  instrument  or  document  of  this  compact  is 
embodied  in  what  is  called  the  Ten  Words,  first  given  in 
Exodus  XX,  and  later  repeated  in  Deuteronomy  v.  This, 
perhaps  the  oldest  and  most  familiar  portion  of  their  litera- 
ture, condenses  their  law  of  living  to  a  nucleus  of  ten  rules, 
so  primitively  ordered  (if  primitive  minds  are  addressed) 
that  they  can  be  remembered  by  counting  on  the  ten  fin- 
gers ;  and  yet  so  far-reaching  and  comprehensive  that  to 
the  end  of  their  history  priest  and  magistrate  and  prophet 
can  use  them  as  a  final  appeal. 

Note.  As  we  have  the  Ten  Commandments  in  Exodus  and 
Deuteronomy,  some  of  them  have  clauses  of  explanation  and  ampli- 
fication appended  to  them  ;  but  in  their  original  form  they  were  more 
nearly  a  literal  "  ten  words  "  code,  being  capable  of  expression  nearly 
in  single  Hebrew  words  with  the  negative  /<?'  prefixed  (in  all  but  two, 
for  they  are  mostly  taboos  or  prohibitions).  It  is  not  improbable  that 
in  their  present  form  they  represent  a  considerable  history  of  gradual 
finish  and  perhaps  selection. 

Of  the  racial  and  religious  ideas  which  the  Israelites  in- 
herited, we  have  mentioned  only  the  salient  ones,  the  ideas 
to  which  their  -leaders  could  appeal  and  which  all  their  lit- 
erature could  presuppose.    By  the  thought  of  the  land  given 

[55] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  XITERATURE 

to  their  fathers  and  restored  to  them  as  the  theater  of  "a 
divine  purpose,  they  were  pledged  to  unity,  patriotism,  pride 
g  J   in  making  the  land  desirable  in  the  eyes  of  na- 

israei's  Fund  tions.  By  the  thought  of  a  God  who  had  revealed 
°  ^^^  Himself  in  a  prophetic  name  and  a  momentous 
deliverance,  they  were  pledged  to  acknowledge  Him  in  the 
experiences  of  life,  and  in  whatever  He  sent  of  blessing  or 
warning.  By  the  remembered  covenant,  the  distinctive  con- 
stitution of  their  corporate  life,  they  were  pledged  to  their 
part  of  it,  to  reverence  and  be  true  to  it,  as  experience  made 
it  fitting.  These  ideas  are  vital  in  all  their  literature.  They 
are  appealed  to  and  enforced  by  all  the  poets  and  prophets. 
And  we  begin  the  study  of  that  literature  just  as  these 
formative  ideas  are  in  the  vigor  of  their  prime. 

HI.    Before  the  Age  of  Books 

For  the  beginnings  of  Biblical  literature  we  have  to  go 
back  far  beyond  the  age  of  written  books  or  scholarly  learn- 
ing to  an  age  when  ideas  were  conveyed  orally  and  per- 
petuated ii-^  memory.  We  are  to  think  of  times  not  unlike 
those  in  the  history  of  English  literature  from  which  we 
get  our  store  of  popular  ballads.  These  ballads  had  circu- 
lated in  the  people's  memory  for  a  long  time  before  it 
occurred  to  scholars  and  antiquarians  to  reduce  them  to 
writing.  So  with  the  earliest  examples  that  we  have  of 
Biblical  literature.  They  spring  from  the  experiences  of 
a  people  unlettered,  in  the  book  sense,  but  not  unliterary. 
They  merely  assume  a  form  adapted  to  oral  transmission  ; 
and  they  undergo  a  molding  process  in  the  people's  mem- 
ory, subject  to  changes  and  refinements  of  wording  until 
they  become  stereotyped  and  permanent.  Thus  they  be- 
come literature,  with  a  form  and  artistry  of  its  own  ;  an 
artistry  adapted  rather  to  the  ear  and  the  memory  than  to 
the  eye  and  the  library. 

[56] 


SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

All  the  earlier  literature  of  the  Bible,  down  to  the  end 
of  David's  reign,  abounds  in  evidences  of  this  oral  origin, 
molding,  and  transmission.  In  fact  the  personal  word, 
spoken  or  chanted,  was  the  norm  of  literary  discourse, 
which  the  later  written  productions  never  lost.  Of  the 
form  of  such  personal  utterance  it  is  essential  that  it  be 
vividly  realized,  easily  grasped,  and  retainable  unchanged 
in  memory.  These  are  not  book  qualities,  formal  and  aca- 
demic ;  they  are  the  limpid  qualities  of  speech  and  story 
and  song,  addressed  to  the  minds  not  merely  of  scholars 
but  of  common  people. 

Notes,  i.  The  Comf/ioi  Folk  Basis  of  Literature.  In  accounting 
for  the  origin  of  English  ballad  poetry  Professor  Kittredge  ("  English 
and  Scottish  Popular  Ballads,"  Introd.,  p.  xix)  describes  conditions  of 
life  very  similar  to  what  we  may  attribute  to  the  Hebrews  in  their 
various  experiences  of  communal  life:  "'Folk'  is  a  large  word.  It 
suggests  a  whole  nation,  or  at  all  events  a  huge  concourse  of  people. 
Let  us  abandon  it,  then,  for  the  moment,  and  think  rather  of  a  small 
tribal  gathering,  assembled,  in  very  early  times,  or  —  what  for  the 
anthropologist  amounts  to  the  same  thing  —  under  very  simple  condi- 
tions of  life,  for  the  purpose  of  celebrating  some  occasion  of  common 
interest,  —  a  successful  hunt,  or  the  return  from  a  prosperous  foray,  or 
the  repulse  of  a  band  of  marauding  strangers.  The  object  of  the  meet- 
ing is  known  to  all ;  the  deeds  which  are  to  be  sung,  the  dance  which 
is  to  accompany  and  illustrate  the  singing,  are  likewise  familiar  to  every 
one.  There  is  no  such  diversity  of  intellectual  interests  as  characterizes 
even  the  smallest  company  of  civilized  men.  There  is  unity  of  feeling 
and  a  common  stock,  however  slender,  of  ideas  and  traditions.  The 
dancing  and  singing,  in  which  all  share,  are  so  closely  related  as  to  be 
practically  complementary  parts  of  a  single  festal  act.  Here,  now,  we 
have  the  '  folk '  of  our  discussion,  reduced,  as  it  were,  to  its  lowest 
terms,- — a  singing,  dancing  throng  subjected  as  a  unit  to  a  mental 
and  emotional  stimulus  which  is  not  only  favorable  to  the  production 
of  poetry,  but  is  almost  certain  to  result  in  such  production." 

2.  Transmission  by  iMet/iory.  How  literature  in  poetic  form  made 
its  way  among  the  Arabs  before  the  age  of  books  is  described  by  Pro- 
fessor A.  B.  Davidson,  "  Biblical  and  Literary  Essays,"  pp.  264,  265  : 
"  No  poems  were  written  before  Islam.  But,  once  shot  from  the  poet's 
mouth,  they  flew  across  the  desert  faster  than  arrows.    The  maidens 

[57] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

sang  them  as  they  went,  with  their  pitchers  on  their  shoulders,  to  the 
well.  The  camel  driver  cheered  himself  and  his  weary  beasts  with 
them,  as  they  wended  their  way  over  the  monotonous  sands  under  the 
bright  Pleiades.  .  .  .  Before  Islam,  writing  seems  to  have  been  little 
practised.  Poems  were  written  on  the  hearts  of  the  people.  Their  brev- 
ity made  this  easy,  their  sententiousness,  their  proverb-like  character, 
their  succession  of  brilliant  images,  each  like  a  rich  pearl,  and  the  whole, 
as  the  Arabs  are  never  weary  of  saying,  like  a  string  of  pearls." 

In  considering  the  primitive  literature  before  the  age  of 
books,  we  need  to  note  how  much  of  it  remains  to  us  in 
primitive  form,  what  native  Hterary  types  it  reveals,  and 
what  are  its  limitations  as  a  vehicle  for  Biblical  truth. 


Literary  Fragments  and  Remainders.  In  the  first  eight 
books  of  the  Hebrew  Bible,  which  narrate  the  history  of 
Israel  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  David,i  there  are  a  good 
many  quoted  passages,  mostly  of  poetry,  which  are  evidently 
more  ancient  than  the  text  in  which  they  occur.  The  source 
from  which  some  of  these  are  derived  is  named  ;  indicating 
that  collections  of  such  fugitive  pieces  were  made  before 
the  history  was  written,  and  that  these  were  drawn  upon  as 
sources  or  illustrations  of  the  written  history  itself. 

The  twenty-first  chapter  of  Numbers  contains  three  such 
quotations;  and  the  first  of  these,  verses  14,  15,  is  referred 
to  a  book  now  lost,  called  "  The  Book  of  the.  Wars  of 
Jehovah."  It  reads  like  little  more  than  a  collection  of 
local  names,  and  perhaps  preserves  in  poetic  form  the 
determination  of  a  boundary.  "  Perhaps,"  says  Professor 
Geden,  "we  are  to  understand  that  the  Song  of  the  Well 
also  (vss.  17,  18),  and  the  Ode  of  Triumph  over  Heshbon 

1  This  takes  us  to  the  end  of  i  Samuel;  but. from  this  account  tlie 
books  of  Leviticus  and  Ruth  are  to  be  left  out,  Leviticus  representing 
a  later  developed  code  of  legislation,  and  Ruth  belonging  to  the  latest 
compiled  division  of  the  Hebrew  canon. 

[58] 


SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

(vss.  27-30),  are  derived  from  the  same  source,"  though 
the  latter,  it  should  be  said,  is  attributed  to  those  who 
'"  speak  iri  proverbs  "  (vs.  27).  '"  The  title  would  seem  to 
indicate  that  the  book  was  a  treasury  of  war  songs,  national 
epics,  celebrating  the  victories  of  Israel  which  Israel's  God 
had  given  her  over  her  foes."  ^  These  quotations  are  mere 
fragments,  and  perhaps  that  is  why  their  source  is  named  ; 
but  if  such  an  anthology  was  in  existence,  it  seems  not 
unlikely  that  it  was  headed  by  the  Song  of  Miriam  at 
the  Red  Sea  (Exod.  xv)  ;  and  that  the  Song  of  Deborah 
belonged  to  the  same  collection.  The  subject  matter  of  all 
these  accords  fitly  with  the  implication  of  the  title. 

Note.  If  this  Book  of  the  Wars  of  Jehovah  was  thus  a  repository 
of  poetic  pieces  compiled  while  the  Israelites  were  fighting  for  posses- 
sion of  the  land,  it  is  perhaps  not  too  presuming  to  attempt  a  list  of 
the  pieces  that  we  have  preserved  from  it : 

Song  at  the  Red  Sea,  Exod.  xv,  1-18. 

The  Ark  Song,  Num.  x,  35,  36. 

Song  of  the  Valley,  Num.  xxi,  14,  15,  —  where  the  source  is  named. 

Song  of  the  Well,  Num.  xxi,  17,  18. 

Satire  (attributed  to  parable-speakers)  on  the  Fall  of  Heshbon, 
Num.  xxi,  27-30. 

The  Oracles  of  Balaam,  Num.  xxiii,  xxiv. 

The  Song  of  Deborah,  Judg.  v. 

Another  collection  of  ancient  song,  called  "The  Book  of 
Jashar  "  (lit.  the  "Upright"),  is  twice  quoted  from  by  name. 
The  first  time,  in  Joshua  x,  12,  13,  the  quotation  is  a  fervid 
address  by  Joshua  to  the  sun  and  moon,  the  famous  passage 
in  which  he  bids  these  luminaries  stand  still  (lit.  "  be 
dumb  ")  until  he  has  finished  his  conquest  of  the  Amorites. 

Sun,  stand  thou  still  upon  Gibeon, 

And  thou,  Moon,  in  the  valley  of  Aijalon, 

is  his  apostrophe ;  and  the  verse  goes  on  to  say : 

And  the  sun  stood  still,  and  the  moon  stayed, 

Until  the  nation  had  avenged  themselves  of  their  enemies, — 

'  Geden,  "  Introduction  to  the  Hebrew  Bible,"  pp.  267,  268. 

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a  couplet  which  commemorates  the  wonders  of  a  long  after- 
noon's battle,  with  its  hard-won  victory.  It  is  likelier  to  refer 
to  a  hailstorm  than  to  a  miracle ;  but  the  prose  historian 
has  interpreted  the  lyric  outburst  too  literally,  as  an  actual 
stopping  of  the  sun  and  a  day  miraculously  prolonged 
(vss.  13,  14).  Read  as  poetry,  it  is  in  much  the  same 
strain  of  enthusiastic  hyperbole  as  we  find  in  Deborah's 
song  of  victory  over  Sisera  (Judg.  v,  20)  : 

From  heaven  fought  the  stars  ; 

From  their  courses  they  fought  against  Sisera. 

The  second  quotation  from  the  Book  of  Jashar,  found 
in  2  Samuel  i,  17-27,  preserves  for  us  the  elegy  of  David 
over  the  death  of  Saul  and  Jonathan.  The  obscure  note 
appended  by  way  of  preface  is  thought  by  some  to  indicate 
that  the  elegy,  as  taught  to  the  people,  was  set  to  a  musical 
melody  entitled  "The  Bow."  If  this  is  so  (and  we  have 
examples  of  such  prescribed  melodies  in  the  titles  of  some 
of  the  Psalms  ;  see,  for  example,  Psa.  xxii,  title),  we  get  a 
hint  of  how  poetic  literature  was  preserved  and  made  current 
before  the  age  of  books. 

David's  lament  over  Abner,  Saul's  general-in-chief 
(2  Sam.  iii,  33,  34),  who  was  treacherously  assassinated  by 
David's  general  Joab,  may  well  have  been  preserved  in  this 
same  collection. 

Notes,  i.  A  Possible  Third  Reference  to  iJie  Book  of  Jashar. 
In  I  Kings  viii,  12,  13,  the  Greek  version  (LXX)  differs  from  the 
Hebrew  in  its  report  of  King  Solomon's  dedicatot}'  prayer ;  as  Pro- 
fessor Robertson   Smith  thus  translates  it: 

Jehovah  created  the  sun  in  the  heavens, 
But  he  hath  determined  to  dwell  in  darkness. 
"  Build  my  house,  an  house  of  habitation  for  me, 
A  place  to  dwell  in  eternally."^ 

To  this  poetic  extract,  which  seems  more  ancient  than  its  context,  the 
LXX  adds,  "  Behold,  is  it  not  written  in  the  Book  of  Song.? "    But,  as 

^  Smith,  "  Old  Testament  in  the  Jewish  Church,"  p.  403,  note  2. 
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SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

Professor  Smith  remarks,  "  the  transposition  of  a  single  letter  in  the 
Hebrew  converts  the  unknown  Book  of  Song  into  the  well-known 
Book  of  Jashar."  So  if  this  Greek  version  represents  a  Hebrew 
original,  ha-shir  may  easily  have  been  mistakenly  copied  for  ha-yashar. 
Professor  Smith  remarks :  "  This  correction  seems  certain.  The  slip 
of  the  Septuagint  translator  was  not  unnatural ;  indeed,  the  same 
change  is  made  by  the  Syriac  in  Josh,  x,  13." 

2.  The  Contents  of  the  Book  of  Jashar.  This  book,  devoted  perhaps 
to  notable  personages  as  the  other  cited  book  was  to  great  deeds,  must 
thus  have  covered  a  period  of  compilation  just  about  identical  with  our 
period  before  the  age  of  books,  namely,  from  Joshua  (or  perhaps  Moses) 
to  Solomon.  As  in  the  case  of  the  other  book,  one  is  tempted  to 
conjecture  of  its  contents  (as  preserved  to  us)  somehow  thus  : 

The  .Song  of  Moses,  Deut.  xxxii,  1-43. 

The  Blessing  of  Moses,  Deut.  xxxiii,  2-29. 

Apostrophe  to  Sun  and  Moon,  Josh,  x,  12,  13  (fragment). 

David's  Elegy  on  Saul  and  Jonathan,  2  Sam.  i,  19-27. 

David's  Lament  over  Abner,  2  Sam.  iii,  33,  34  (probably  fragment). 

David's  Last  Words,  2  Sam.  xxiii,  1-17. 

Solomon's  Words  at  Dedication  of  Temple,  i  Kings  viii,  12,  13 
(LXX)  (fragment). 

Besides  these  extracts  thus  referred  to  collections,  the 
attribution  of  the  Heshbon  song  in  Numbers  xxi,  27-30  to 
"them  that  speak  in  proverbs"  seems  to  refer  not  to  liter- 
ature preserved  in  books  but  to  literature  made  popular 
among  the  people  by  speakers  in  parables,  and  preserved 
orally  like  a  ballad.  Such  indeed  is  the  source  of  most 
of  the  quotations  that  occur  in  the  historical  books.  They 
come  not  from  professional  men  of  letters  but  from  the 
life  of  the  common  people.  They  may  express  an  ancient 
tribal  sentiment,  like  the  Song  of  Lamech,  Gen.  iv,  23,  24  ; 
or  perpetuate  a  family  oracle,  like  that  on  the  birth  of  TLsau 
and  Jacob,  Gen.  xxv,  23  ;  or  preserve  a  popular  song,  like 
that  sung  by  the  women  after  David's  victory  over  Goliath 
I  Sam.  xviii,  7  ;  or  be  quoted  as  a  current  proverb,  as  in 
David's  answer  to  King  Saul,  i  Sam.  xxiv,  13.  A  great 
variety  of  folk  sources  were  thus  drawn  upon  as  materials 
or  corroborations  of  the  history. 

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Note.  Recognizable  Extracts  Listed.  A  list  of  these  fragments 
and  remainders  to  the  end  of  David's  reign  is  here  copied  from  Geden's 
Introduction  to  the  Hebrew  Bible,  p.  264. 

"  The  chief  of  these  songs  or  poetical  extracts,  contained  in  the  first 
eight  books  of  the-  Hebrew  Bible,  are  as  follows : 
(i)  Gen.  iv,  23,  24.    Song  of  Lamech. 

(2)  Gen.   ix,   25-27.    Noah's   Curse   on  Canaan,  and   Blessing  on 
Japheth. 

(3)  Gen.  xxvii,  27-29.    Isaac's  Blessing  of  Jacob. 

(4)  Gen.  xxvii,  39,  40.    Isaac's  Blessing  of  Esau. 

(5)  Gen.  xlix,  2-27.    Jacob's  Prophecy  of  the  Future 'of  his  Sons. 

(6)  Exod.  XV,   I -1 8,  21.    Song  at  the  Red  Sea  of  Moses  and  the 
Children  of  Israel,  and  of  Miriam. 

(7)  Exod.  XX,  2-17.    The  Ten  Words,  cp.  Deut.  v,  6-21. 

(8)  Num.  X,  35,  36.    Words  for  the  Taking  up  and  Setting  down 
of  the  Ark. 

(9)  Nurri.  xxi,  14,  15.    Song  of  the  Valley. 

(10)  Num.  xxi,  17,  18.    Song  of  the  Well. 

(11)  Num.  xxi,  27-30.    Satire  on  the  Fall  of  Heshbon. 

(12)  Num.  xxiii,  7-10,  18-24;  xxiv,  3-9,  15-24.  Oracles  of  Balaam, 
the  Son  of  Beor. 

(13)  Deut.  xxvii,  15-26.    Curses  of  the  Law. 

(14)  Deut.  xxxii,  1-43.    Song  of  Moses. 

(15)  Deut.  xxxiii,  2-29.    Blessing  of  Moses. 

(16)  Josh.  X,  12,  13.  Adjuration  of  Sun  and  Moon  at  Gibeon  and 
the  Valley  of  Aijalon. 

(17)  Judg.  V.    Song  of  Deborah  and  Barak. 

(18)  Judg.  ix,  8-15.   Jotham's  Fable  of  the  Trees  and  their  King. 

(19)  Judg.  xiv,  14,  18;  XV,  16.    Samson's  Riddle  and  Sayings. 

(20)  I  Sam.  ii,  i-io.    Hannah's  Prayer. 

(21)  I  Sam.  xviii,  7  ;  xxi,  1 1.  Celebration  by  the  Women  of  David's 
Prowess. 

(22)  2  Sam.  i,  19-27.    David's  Lament  over  Saul  and  Jonathan. 

(23)  2  Sam.  iii,  33,  34.    Elegy  on  the  Death  of  Abner. 

(24)  2  Sam.  xxii.    David's  Song  of  Deliverance ;  cp.  Psa.  xviii. 

(25)  2  Sam.  xxiii,  1-7.    Last  Words  of  David." 

The  poetic  language  of  a  nation  is  in  general  more 
archaic  in  expression  than  the  idiom  of  common  speech 
and  intercourse  ;  partly  because  archaism  promotes  the 
imaginative  mood  of  poetry,  and  partly  because  the  more 

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SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

ancient  usages  created  a  norm  for  poetic  expression.  The 
literary  passages  quoted  in  the  Bible  as  ancient  bear  the 
Age  and  marks  of  their  archaic  character.  Their  words 
Setting  and  phraseology,  their  grammar  and  syntax,  their 

sentiment,  all  bear  witness  to  their  relative  antiquity  ;  and 
thus  these  scraps  of  poetry  and  proverb  have  the  interest 
of  being  the  utterance  of  the  oldest  human  experiences 
known  to  us. 

Note.  In  his  "  Introduction  to  the  Hebrew  Bible,"  p.  263,  Pro- 
fessor Geden  says:  "  In  the  lyrics  of  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament, 
the  more  or  less  fragmentary  songs,  elegies,  poetical  outpourings  of 
natural  emotion  and  feeling,  will  be  found  the  oldest  literary  expres- 
sions of  Hebrew  thought.  With  this  conclusion  the  facts  of  language,' 
both  in  regard  to  grammar  and  syntax,  are  in  entire  conformity.  It  is 
in  these  pieces  that  the  language  presents  itself  under  its  most  archaic 
form ;  and  they  appear  to  betray  in  many  instances  the  effects  of  a 
longer  period  of  transmission,  and  even  of  later  misunderstanding  and 
attempts  at  repair  and  restoration,  than  do  the  books  in  general  in 
which  they  are  embedded.  The  origin  and  date  of  some  of  these  are 
determined  by  the  circumstances  which  they  commemorate ;  of  others 
the  source  is  entirely  obscure.  All  that  can  be  said  of  them  is  that  they 
are  certainly  ancient.  The  text,  moreover,  is  often  difficult  to  interpret, 
and  probably  impaired." 

A  noteworthy  feature  of  these  quotations  is  their  fidelity 
to  their  setting.  They  never  have  the  effect  of  being  lugged 
in  to  enhance  the  literary  beauty  or  interest  of  the  history ; 
they  spring  naturally  out  of  the  context  as  if  they  were 
made  for  the  place.  Thus  they  enliven  the  history  by  pre- 
serving intimate  personal  touches,  as  from  the  presence  of 
the  event  itself.  From  the  series  of  them  one  could  con- . 
struct  a  fair  idea  of  the  spirit  of  early  times  and  its  progress 
from  rude  and  savage  passions  to  a  degree  of  refinement 
close  to  the  milder  graces  of  civilization.  This  may  be  felt 
by  comparing  the  oldest  extract  in  the  above-given  list,  the 
Song  of  Lamech,  with  its  brutal  glorification  of  blood  re- 
venge, and  some  of  the  latest,  like  David's  elegy  over  Saul 

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and  Jonathan,  and  his  tender  last  words.  These  hterary 
fragments  and  remainders  thus  subtend  a  large  arc  of 
human  refinement  and '  progress,  before  the  expression  of 
thought  had  become  self-conscious  and  artistic. 

It  is  not  to  be  concluded,  however,  that  all  of  these 
quoted  passages  are  so  much  more  ancient  than  their  con- 
text as  to  be  contemporary  with  their  event  or  situation. 
We  have  to  allow  for  the  liberty  which  ancient  historians 
freely  took  of  inventing  or  imagining  speeches  for  their 
characters  ;  a  custom  which  wc  see  exemplified  in  the  case 
of  Thucydides.  The  Hebrew  historians  doubtless  exercised 
the  same  creative  freedom.  Some  extracts  are  preserved 
unchanged,  with  the  marks  of  their  antiquity  upon  them  ; 
some  may  be  the  composition  of  the  historian  himself  ;  and 
in  many  cases  the  quotation  may  be  a  repair  or  enlargement 
of  ancient  fragments.  In  many  cases,  too,  the  quotation, 
though  more  ancient  than  the  historian's  time,  may  not 
be  so  ancient  as  the  event  to  which  it  relates  ;  for  other 
writers  may  have  given  their  version  of  it,  which  the  final 
historian  found  to  his  hand. 

Note.  "  That  these  passages,"  says  Professor  Geden  ("  Introduction 
to  the  Hebrew  Bible,"  p.  265),  "  are  not  all  of  equal  or  even  great  antiq- 
uity is  written  patently  upon  the  face  of  them.  Some  may  even  be  no 
older  than  the  prose  and  narrative  setting  in  which  they  are  found. 
All  of  them,  however,  deserve  careful  study  at  the  hands  of  those  who 
would  understand  the  nature  and  growth  of  the  Hebrew  language 
and  literature." 

II 

The  Native  Mold  of  Literary  Form.  Both  from  the 
fragments  and  remainders  that  we  have  noted,  and  from 
the  narratives  in  which  they  are  embedded,  we  can  see 
what  is  the  native  genius  of  the  Hebrews  for  literature, 
and  in  what  forms  it  found  most  spontaneous  expression, 
before  the  time  of  written  books. 

As   is   true   of   all    nations,   the   earliest   form   that   was 

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SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

consciously  literary  was  poetic.  It  had  the  intense  and 
elevated  diction,  the  imaginative  and  figurative  tone,  and 
In  the  Poetic  the  aptly  molded  phrase,  which  are  essential  to 
Strain  poetry.     In  the  Revised  Version  much  of  this, 

even  in  the  historical  books,  is  printed  in  lines  as  poetry  ;  and 
this  helps  readers  greatly  in  realizing  its  poetic  quality.  It 
must  be  noted,  however,  that  poetry  loses  much  by  trans- 
lation into  another  tongue  ;  and  in  judging  of  its  quality 
one  must  rely  less  on  the  form  than  on  the  general  elevated 
key  of  imagination  and  passion. 

The  verse  of  the  Hebrew  poetry  is  not  founded,  as  is 
modern  verse,  either  on  a  system  of  quantitative  meter  or 
on  a  rhyming  system.  What  rhythm  can  be  traced  is 
accentual,  and  what  rhyme  occurs  is  casual  or  accidental. 
The  verse  is  composed  rather  on  a  unit  of  parallelism  ;  that 
is  to  say,  the  lines  are  generally  in  couplets,  in  which  the 
second  line  repeats  the  structure  and  in  some  way  the  idea 
of  the  first.  A  simple  example  of  this  may  be  seen  in 
what  is  perhaps  the  oldest  verse  in  the  Bible,  the  song  of 
Lamech  (Gen.  iv,  23,  24)  ;  in  which  the  three  pairs  of  lines, 
and  the  likeness  of  idea  in  each  pair,  will  be  noted  : 

Adah  and  Zillah,  hear  my  voice ; 

Ye  wives  of  Lamech,  hearken  unto  my  speech : 

For  I  have  slain  a  man  for  wounding  me, 

And  a  young  man  for  bruising  me : 

If  Cain  shall  be  avenged  sevenfold, 

Truly  Lamech  seventy  and  sevenfold. 

This  exhibits  the  verse  unit  in  primitive  simplicity ;  being 
a  song  in  synonymous  couplets  or  parallelisms.  A  variety 
of  relations,  however,  may  exist  between  the  coupled  lines. 
They  may  be  virtually  synonymous,  saying  nearly  the  same 
thing  twice  ;  as  in  the  song  just  quoted,  and  in  the  following 
couplet  from  Deborah  : 

Why  is  his  chariot  so  long  in  coming.-' 
Why  tarry  the  wheels  of  his  chariots.'' 

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Or  the  second  line  may  give  tlie  obverse  or  contrast  to  the 
first ;  as  in  the  following  from  the  Book  of  Proverbs : 

Righteousness  exalteth  a  nation  ; 

But  sin  is  a  reproach  to  any  people  (xiv,  34). 

Or  the  second  line  may  intensify  and  enlarge  upon  the 
first ;  as  in  the  following,  also  from  Proverbs  : 

He  that  hath  an  evil  eye  hasteth  after  riches, 

And  knoweth  not  that  want  shall  come  upon  him  (xxviii,  22). 

In  any  case  the  verse  is  a  kind  of  thought-rhyme  ;  thoughts 
instead  of  sounds  being  paired  together  and  aided  by  similarity 
of  structure.  This  is  its  essential  unit,  which  is  apparent  how- 
ever the  verse  is  refined  by  cultivation.  It  developed  indeed 
an  accentual  measure  of  its  own  ;  but  the  minuter  study  of 
this  belongs  rather  to  the  original  than  to  a  translation. 

The  historical  books,  with  their  frequent  quotation  of 
more  primitive  material,  furnish  good  occasion  to  note  the 
native  forms  most  congenial  to  the  Hebrew  mind.  Of  these 
forms  in  the  poetic  strain  we  may  here  distinguish  the 
two  that  spring  naturally  from  the  opposite  moods  of  joy 
and  grief ;   namely,  the  song  and  the  eleg)'  or  lament. 

The  Song  {shir),  represented  in  numerous  fragments  and 
by  such  complete  examples  as  the  songs  of  Miriam  and 
Deborah,  is  in  every  nation  the  most  spontane- 
ong  ^^^^  ^^^  natural  utterance  of  the  higher  senti- 
ments and  emotions.  Rising  out  of  the  common  occasions 
of  life,  like  birth  and  marriage,  and  out  of  the  inspiring 
events,  like  help  in  fellowship  and  victor}^  in  war,  it  per- 
petuates the  wholesome  spirit  of  family  and  communal  life 
from  age  to  age.  It  is  the  best  literary  form  for  oral  trans- 
mission, its  versified  structure  being  favorable  to  preserva- 
tion unaltered,  and  its  accompaniment  of  music  or  chanting 
giving  it  at  once  elevation  and  popular  currency. 

Note.  The  oldest  Hebrew  songs  that  we  have  show  already  a 
high   degree   of  poetic  and  constructive    skill,   indicating   that   in   this 

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SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

kind  of  literature  the  Israelites,  when  we  first  make  contemporary  con- 
tact with  their  mind,  were  well  advanced  in  the  sense  of  poetic  values. 
As  the  historians  were  concerned  with  public  and  religious  matters, 
they  would  naturally  not  retain  songs  of  a  private  or  family  nature ; 
but  Gen.  xxxi,  27,  shows  that '  such  songs  were  customary,  and  in 
Gen.  xxiv,  60,  we  have  a  poetic  blessing  pronounced  on  the  occasion 
of  Rebekah's  leaving  home  to  marry  Isaac : 

Our  sister,  be  thou  the  mother  of  thousands  of  ten  thousands, 
And  let  thy  seed  possess  the  gate  of  those  that  hate  them. 

One  Scripture  book.  The  Song  of  Solomon,  preserves  a  lyric  cycle  of 
such  nuptial  songs.  Of  songs  of  thanksgiving  over  birth  one  may  note 
Hannah's  song,  i  Sam.  ii,  i-io,  a  type  reproduced  in  the  Magnificat, 
Luke  i,  46-55.  Songs  of  victory  are  well  illustrated  by  the  chorus  of 
women  after  David's  victory  over  Goliath,  i  Sam.  xviii,  7.  Songs  of 
religious  worship  and  praise,  both  public  and  private,  make  up  the 
main  body  of  Hebrew  poetry ;  the  Book  of  Psalms  is  all  composed 
of  such ;  and  later  songs  occur  in  the  prophecies,  for  example,  Isa.  v, 
1-7;  xii ;  xxvi,  1-7;  Hab.  iii ;  Jonah  ii.  Moses'  song  and  blessing, 
,  Deut.  xxxii,  xxxiii.  David's  review  song  (identical  with  Psa.  xviii) 
and  last  words,  2  Sam.  xxii,  xxiii ;  and  Hezekiah's  thanksgiving  for 
recovery  from  sickness,  Isa.  xxxviii,  10-20,  are  of  more  public  and 
national  significance. 

Occasions  of  grief,  private  or  public,  called  forth  another 

lyric  type,  exemplified  by  such  poems  as  David's  dirge  over 

Saul  and  Jonathan  (2  Sam.  i),  which  he  seems 

2.  The  Elegy  ,  ,       1  •  ,  •  t  ,.     • 

to  have  taught  his  people  to  sing.  It  was  distin- 
guished from  the  song  by  a  class  name,  kinah,  "lament." 
The  form  of  the  verse,  too,  is  varied,  the  couplet  unit 
consisting  of  a  long  line  answered  by  a  shorter  one.  The 
first  couplet  of  David's  dirge  illustrates  this  feature  : 

Thy  glory,  O  Israel,  is  slain  upon  thy  high  places ! 
How  are  the  mighty  fallen  ! 

In  David's  lament  over  Abner  (2  Sam.  iii,  33,  34)  we  have 
the  fragment  of  another  elegy. 

Note.  The  form  of  the  lament  or  elegy,  rising  naturally  out  of 
bereavement  or  calamity,  was  cultivated  to  a  high  state  of  development 
in  later  times.   In  2  Chronicles  xxxv,  25,  the  national  lament  over  King 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Josiah  is  thus  narrated  :  "  And  Jeremiah  lamented  for  Josiah :  and  all 
the  singing  men  and  singing  women  spake  of  Josiah  in  their  lamentations 
unto  this  day  ;  and  they  made  them  an  ordinance  in  Israel :  and  behold, 
they  are  written  in  the  lamentations."'  Jeremiah,  in  xxii,  i8,  denies  the 
honor  of  a  public  lamentation  to  King  Jehoiakim  :  "  They  shall  not 
lament  for  him,  saying,  Ah  my  brother !  or,  Ah  sister!  They  shall  not 
lament  for  him,  saying.  Ah  lord  !  or,  Ah  his  glory  !  "  A  whole  Scripture 
book,  the  Lamentations,  is  made  up  of  elegies  composed  on  the  occa- 
sion of  the  fall  of  Jerusalem ;  and  these  are  still  chanted  at  the  Jews' 
Wailing  Place  at  the  foot  of  the  old  Temple  wall. 

With  all  its  emotional  intensity,  finding  expression  in 
poetry,  the  Hebrew  mind  was  eminently  matter-of-fact  and 
In  the  practical ;  and  this  made  the  prose  vehicle  fully 

Prose  Mood  ^s  natural  a  form  of  expression  as  the  poetic. 
Much  of  the  poetry,  though  maintaining  the  parallelism 
and  workmanship  of  verse,  is  hardly  distinguishable  in 
feeling  from  prose.  This  is  especially  true  of  such  litera- 
ture as  proverbs ;  as  one  can  feel  from  such  a  specimen 
couplet  as  this  : 

He  that  is  slow  to  anger  is  better  than  the  mighty ; 
And  he  that  ruleth  his  spirit  than  he  that  taketh  a  city, 

which  is  in  the  didactic  mood  of  prose.  The  prophecies, 
which  we  shall  notice  later,  are  as  much  like  oratory  as  like 
poetry ;  they  may  be  best  read,  indeed,  as  impassioned 
prose,  with  bccasional  passages  in  more  poetic  strain. 

Of  the  forms  in  prose  mood  which  in  the  historic  books 
reveal  the  native  genius,  we  may  mention  t\\\>  :  the  Mashal 
and  the  Folk  Tale. 

We  leave  this  word  inasJial  untranslated  because  no  one 
word  of  our  language  fully  represents  it.  The  mashal  was 
3.  The  the  form  of  utterance  for   something  especially 

Mashal  memorable  or  weighty,  something  to  be  laid  to 

heart  or  to  set  one  thinking,  —  in  a  word,  for  didactic  mat- 
ter. The  word  mashal  is  generally  translated  "  proverb " 
(see,  for  example,  i  Sam.  xxiv,  13),  sometimes  "parable" 
{see,  for  example.  Num.  xxiii,  7) ;  but  both  the  sententious 

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SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

form  connoted  by  the  one  word  and  the  sustained  form  con- 
noted by  the  other  are  incidental,  not  essential.  The  word 
means  primarily  "likeness,"  or  "comparison";  and  refers 
to  that  form  of  presentation  in  which  an  illustrative  figure, 
like  simile,  an  illustrative  story,  like  fable,  or  even  a  pointed 
contrast  or  antithesis,  is  used  to  convey  a  lesson.  In  the 
broad  sense,  it  is  the  kind  of  literature  which  employs  the 
principle  of  analogy ;  and  this,  as  we  shall  see,  was  the  He- 
brews' unit  of  reasoning,  rather  than  by  premise  and  con- 
clusion as  with  the  Greeks.  As  to  specific  forms,  the  mashal 
inay  designate  fables,  parables,  riddles,  maxims,  aphorisms  ;  it 
may  be  expressed  either  in  prose  or  in  verse.  Its  tendency 
is  toward  as  pointed  and  condensed  a  style  as  possible  ;  and 
when  it  employs  verse  it  is  more  for  the  sake  of  its  point 
and  phrasing  than  for  its  emotional  or  picturing  character. 
The  mashal  tended  most  to  the  verse  form  when  most 
directly  didactic.  It  rose  out  of  the  kind  of  utterance  most 
racy  of  the  soil,  namely,  the  folk  proverb ;  see,  as  an  instance, 
the  answer  of  the  outlawed  David  to  King  Saul,  vindicating 
himself  (i  Sam.  xxiv,  13),  in  which  he  quotes  an  ancient  folk 
maxim.  For  the  origin  of  a  proverb  see  i  Sam,  x,  12.  The 
riddle  of  Samson  and  its  answer  (Judg.  xiv,  14,  18)  is  an 
example  of  a  verse  mashal  composed  for  an  occasion  : 

Out  of  the  eater  came  forth  food, 

And  out  of  the  strong  came  forth  sweetness, 

in  which  one  may  note  the  hidden  antithesis  giving  it 
point.  The  mashal  in  verse  form  was  also  used  for  es- 
pecially important  utterances  like  a  prophetic  oracle  ;  thus 
Balaam's  oracles  given  in  trance  (Num.  xxiii,  xxiv)  are 
called  mashals.  Another  use  of  it  was  as  a  vehicle  of 
satire^  or  what  is  called  a  taunt  song  ;  ^  thus  the  song  of 
exultation  over  Heshbon  (Num.  xxi,  27-30)  is  attributed 
to  those  "who  speak  in  mashals." 

1  Cf.  Habakkuk  ii,  6 :  "  Shall  not  all  these  take  up  a  parable  {mashal) 
against  him,  and  a  taunting  proverb  against  him?" 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

The  analogy  principle  of  the  mashal,  however,  was  used 
most  effectively  when  it  was  expressed  as  a  familiarly  told 
tale  or  apologue,  setting  forth  its  lesson  in  "an  indirectly 
didactic  way,  as  a  case  analogous  to  the  one  to  be  taught. 
A  fine  example  of  this  kind  of  prose  mashal  is  Jotham's 
fable,  Judg.  ix,  8-15,  in  which  the  trees  are  represented  as 
talking  together  and  choosing  a  king.  The  use  of  a  parable 
as  a  delicate  means  of  conveying  reproof  is  illustrated  by 
Nathan's  parable,  2  Sam.  xii,  1-4,  and  the  wise  woman 
of  Tekoa's  fictitious  story,  2  Sam.  xiv  ;  in  both  of  which 
instances  King  David,  pronouncing  judgment  on  a  hypo- 
thetical case,  is  made  to  pass  adverse  judgment  on  himself. 
The  answer  of  King  Jehoash  to  King  Amaziah  about  a  pro- 
posed gage  of  battle,  2  Kings  xiv,  8-10,  is  a  prose  mashal 
used  as  a  weapon  of  sarcasm. 

Note.  Later  DeveIop)ncnts.  All  these  are  taken  from  the  early 
historical  books,  as  examples  of  the  pre-literary  mashal ;  but  like  the 
song,  the  mashal  was  later  taken  up  and  cultivated  to  a  very  artistic 
form  of  literature.  The  Book  of  Proverbs  {^111' shall  in)  is  a  collection  of 
mashals  of  a  specific  type,  the  Solomonic  mashal,  which  was  the  most 
condensed  and  finished  of  all.  The  last  discourses  of  Job, (see  xxvii,  i 
and  xxix,  i),  which  are  called  mashals,  present  the  verse  in  a  more 
flowing  and  continuous  form.  The  sage  Ecclesiastes  made  it  his  oc- 
cupation to  compile,  compose,  and  arrange  mashals,  both  prose  and 
poetic  (Eccl.  xii,  9).  The  parables  of  Jesus  may  be  regarded  as  the 
most  charming  as  well  as  the  most  matured  form  of  the  mashal. 

As  a  reflection  of  the  Hebrew  mind  not  only  the  literary 
quotations  embedded  in  the  history  but  the  history  itself  is 
4.  The  to    be    reckoned   with  ;    and    indeed   this    history 

Folk  Tale  embodies,  especially  from  Judges  through  2  Sam- 
uel, the  most  intimate  product,  the  nearest  to  the  people's 
common  life,  of  the  ages  before  books.  For  its  ground-' 
work  is  essentially  folk  story,  such  as  grows  immediately 
out  of  the  event,  with  its  atmosphere  of  folk  customs, 
relations,  ideas.  Though  gathered  later  into  a  continuous 
history,  with  a  framework  of  chronology,  connecting  links, 

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SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

and  elucidative  comment,  these  folk  tales  still  retain  the 
color  and  raciness  of  their  oral  origin,  and  are  doubtless 
a  true  reflection  of  the  history  as  it  essentially  was.  Thus 
all  that  is  vivid  and  moving  in  the  history  comes  down  to 
us  straight  from  concrete  experience.  In  this  sense,  then, 
we  can  read  the  bulk  of  the  early  history  as  contemporary 
literature.  It  is  folk  tale,  such  as  comes  from  the  camp,  the 
home,  and  the  city-gate  ;  shaped  and  pruned  and  tempered 
by  long  oral  transmission,  but  also  reflecting  a  native  genius 
for  simple  and  telling  narration. 

Notes,  i  .  The  Native  Qe/iius  for  A^arration.  Some  remarks  of 
Professor  Sanday,  in  "The  Life  of  Christ  in  Recent  Research,"  p.  15, 
are  as  apphcable  to  Old  Testament  narrative  as  to  New :  "  Where  the 
Hebrew  historian  is  writing  of  events  that  are  still  fresh  in  men's 
memory,  and  where  he  is  drawing  upon  good  contemporary  sources, 
he  is  an  excellent  narrator.  There  is  no  redundance  of  language,  no 
straining  after  effect,  no  obscurity  of  detail,  and  yet  the  human  feeling 
of  the  story,  the  pathos  and  the  tragedy,  come  out  of  themselves  in  a 
way  that  is  strangely  moving.  It  is  like  the  simple,  dignified,  reserved, 
and  yet  expressive  speech  that  seems  natural  to  the  East,  and  that  in 
the  Bible  always  has  the  religious  sense  behind  it." 

2.  The  Oral  Statidard  of  Narrative.  That  the  type  of  Biblical 
narrative  was  set  by  the  oral  or  folk  tale,  may  be  seen  from  the  fol- 
lowing, about  the  gospel  story,  from  Professor  Hill,  "  Introduction  to 
the  Life  of  Christ,"  p.  26:  "At  the  outset  the  story  was,  of  course, 
wholly  oral.  The  presence  of  eye-witnesses  obviated  the  necessity  of 
resorting  to  written  documents;  and,  moreover,  the  Jews  shared  the 
Oriental  feeling,  that  religious  truth  ought  to  pass  from  teacher  to 
learner  by  word  of  mouth  and  not  by  writing.  All  the  great  mass 
of  the  Talmud  was  for  generations  handed  down  orally,  and  its  final 
reduction  to  writing  was  opposed  by  many.  And  the  same  preference 
for  oral  teaching  is  expressed  by  Papias,  a  Christian  of  the  second 
century,  when  speaking  of  learning  about  Christ's  life :  '  I  did  not 
think  that  what  was  to  be  gotten  from  the  books  would  profit  me  as 
much  as  what  came  from  the  living  and  abiding  voice.'  Such  oral 
accounts  of  what  Jesus  said  and  did  would  have  a  more  or  less  stereo- 
typed form,  partly  because  any  account  often  repeated  grows  stereo- 
typed in  form,  and  still  more  because  the  tenacious  Oriental  memory 
reproduces  exactly  whatever  has  been  delivered  to  it." 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Of  the  Bible  history  as  a  completed  whole,  a  future 
chapter  is  the  place  to  speak. ^  We  are  dealing  here  merely 
with  an  important  component  element :  the  current  or  tra- 
ditional folk  tales  which  were  so  intimately  woven  with  it 
as  to  impart  to  it  their  own  prevailing  tone.  These  stories 
are  of  course  Oriental  in  color,  reflecting  the  imaginative 
intensity  of  the  Semitic  mind.  As  compared  with  other 
Oriental  stories,  however,  like  for  instance  the  Arabian 
Nights,  they  are  singularly  free  from  the  fantastic  or  gro- 
tesque, are  simple  and  sane,  and  use  the  utmost  economy 
of  detail  to  get  the  essentials  of  the  story  told.  There 
seems  to  have  been,  as  far  back  as  we  can  trace,  a  steady- 
ing influence  at  work  at  the  core  of  the  people's  life,  which 
kept  their  thought  and  imagination  poised  and  realistic.  It 
is  by  virtue  of  such  qualities  that  the  men  and  events  of  so 
small  a  nation  and  so  remote  a  time  have  become  more 
memorable,  and  have  added  more  to  the  moral  and  spiritual 
outfit  of  the  ages,  than  any  other  men  and  events  in 
the  world. 

Ill 

Avails  and  Deficits  of  the  Pre-Literary  Times.  It  will 
be  noted  that  while  we  have  traced  the  quoted  fragments 
of  poetry  from  prehistoric  times,  we  have  not  pushed  the 
folk  tale  back  beyond  the  Book  of  Judges.  The  stories  of 
Genesis  and  of  the  experience  in  the  Wilderness  do  not  be- 
long so  truly  to  the  folk  tale ;  they  are  legends  gathered  by 
scholars  and  teachers  and  containing  more  of  the  interpre- 
tative and  symbolical ;  the  time  to  speak  of  them  is  later. 
Meanwhile,  in  the  general  tone  of  the  folk  tale,  the  rude 
heroism  and  adventure,  the  savage  elemental  passions,  the 
primitive  customs,  the  undeveloped  religion  not  unmi.xed 
with  superstition,  of  a  people  just  emerging  from  nomadism 

1  See  Looking  Before  and  After,  Chapter  III,  I. 


SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

to  a  settled  and  organized  life,  are  faithfully  reproduced. 
As  we  go  on  from  the  times  of  the  Judges  through  the 
two  books  of  Samuel  this  folk-tale  coloring  enables  us  to 
realize  the  gradual  refinement  of  the  people's  customs  and 
ideas,  as  they  gain  a  surer  hold  on  land  and  religion  and 
reach  more  civilized  conditions  in  life  :  a  period  coinciding 
with  the  gradual  fusion  of  tribal  and  clannish  elements  into 
national  unity,  and  the  establishment  of  monarchy  under  the 
first  two  kings,  Saul  and  David. 

We  have  put  the  historic  period  from  Joshua  to  Solomon 
before  the  age  of  books,  not  because  there  was  no  written 
„     .      ,      literature  in  that  period,  but  because  literature  in 

Heroic  and  •  ^  ' 

Personal  any  finished  or  efficient  form  was  not  a  felt  ele- 
Stimu  us  nient  of  life  and  culture.  The  literary  ages,  with 
the  diffused  sense  of  literary  values,  came  later.  Meanwhile, 
in  those  primitive  social  conditions,  the  great  moving  and 
educative  power  among  men  was  the  power  of  masterful 
personality.  In  the  men  of  mind  and  achievement  who, 
born  and  reared  among  them  and  sharing  in  their  common 
lot,  emerged  to  distinction  as  warriors,  judges,  and  seers, 
the  people  recognized  not  only  their  natural  masters  but 
the  personal  ideal  to  which  insensibly  their  lives  con- 
formed. This  was  the  primal  source  of  Israel's  early  morals 
and  enlightenment,  the  unspoken  pattern  of  human  worth 
and  honor. 

A  characteristic  trait,  accordingly,  of  these  pre-literary 
ages  is  that  they  are  rich  in  personality,  especially  in  strong 
and  rough-hewn  characters  ;  men  like  all  others  limited  and 
faulty,  but  with  strong  convictions  and  deeds  to  their  credit 
which  endow  them  with  influence.  Instead  of  books  and 
diffused  ideas,  such  as  we  have,  these  heroic  times  had 
among  them  such  real  embodiments  of  faith  and  character 
as  Deborah,  Gideon,  Jephthah,  Samson,  Samuel,  Saul, 
Jonathan,  David  ;  each  in  his  way  infusing  some  personal 
light  and  stimulus  into  the  common  life  of  the  people. 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Note.  Two  or  three  instances  of  this  personal  ascendancy,  out  of 
many,  may  be  cited,  to  show  how  dependent  the  people  were  upon  it 
and  how  responsive  to  it.  Gideon's  boldness  in  breaking  down  the  altar 
of  Baal  and  setting  up  an  altar  to  Jehovah  in  its  place  (Judg.  vi,  25-32) 
changed  the  religious  allegiance  of  the  people  and  earned  him  a  name 
and  leadership.  The  incident  of  the  people's  rescue  of  Jonathan  from 
the  death  he  had  incurred  for  his  unwitting  violation  of  a  taboo  (i  Sam. 
xiv,  45)  is  an  indication  of  his  extraordinary  hold  on  the  people's  affec- 
tion, a  passion  which  overrode  a  deep-seated  religious  feeling.  The 
whole  life  of  David  as  an  outlaw,  his  magnanimity  toward  the  jealous 
king,  his  generous  treatment  of  foes,  his  enforced  Robin  Hood  role 
(see  especially  i  Sam.  xxii,  i,  2),  is  a  telling  example  of  what  a  lovable 
and  generous  personality  may  do  to  tame  and  ennoble  the  crude 
passions  of  men. 

What  a  people  can  get  from  personal  contact  and  influ- 
ence is  after  all  only  as  great  as  the  person ;  and  the  person, 
N  d  b  d  however  distinguished  in  some  ways,  is  at  best 
Personal  only  a  Step  in  advance  of  his  time.  Besides,  too, 
scendancy  ^yj|-]-,Qu|-  ^  sincere  conscience  or  a  fixed  standard 
of  principle,  personal  ascendancy  is  as  apt  to  be  degrading 
as  elevating.  If  there  may  be  a  Gideon,  strong  in  rugged 
faith,  there  may  also  be  an  Abimelech,  strong  only  in  base 
self-aggrandizement ;  and  Gideon  himself,  after  his  victories 
in  the  pure  worship  of  Jehovah,  may  lapse  into  a  subtle  and 
corrupting  idolatry  (see  Judg.  viii,  24-27).  The  defect  in 
mere  personal  ascendancy  is  well  illustrated  by  the  down- 
ward trend  of  the  nation,  in  spite  of  the  occasional  faith 
and  valor  of  the  Judges,  during  the  period  from  the  death 
of  Joshua  to  Samuel.  Of  the  sad  depth  that  the  nation 
by  Samuel's  time  had  reached  the  Biblical  description  is  : 
"  The  word  of  Jehovah  was  rare  in  those  days ;  there  was 
no  frequent  vision"  (i  Sam.  iii,  i  ;  cf.  Prov.  xxix,  18); 
while  of  a  somewhat  earlier  time  the  repeated  description 
is :  "  In  those  days  there  was  no  king  in  Israel ;  every 
man  did  that  which  was  right  in  'his  own  eyes "  (Judg. 
xvii,  6  ;  xxi,  25).  There  was  lack  of  a  common  enlighten- 
ment and  steadying  power  in  the  mind  of  the  people. 

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SEMINA  LITTERARUM 

Note.  The  following  sketch  of  that  time  of  deterioration  is  given 
by  Principal  Miller,  iii  "  The  Least  of  All  Lands,"  p.  215  : 

"  The  history  from  Joshua  to  Samuel  is  one  of  continual  and  steady 
degradation.  It  is  relieved,  no  doubt,  by  bursts  of  faith  and  valor;  but, 
so  fat  as  our  scanty  materials  enable  us  to  judge,  each  outburst  when  it 
came  found  the  people  in  a  more  hopeless  state  than  the  one  before  it. 
And,  speaking  roughly,  each  of  them  was  in  itself  a  meaner  and  weaker 
thing  than  its  predecessor.  Gideon  may  have  been  greater  than  Barak, 
but  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  he  elevated  the  character  and  purposes 
of  the  people  less.  And  with  the  great  names  that  come  after  Gideon's, 
the  falling-off  is  manifest  and  great.  Jephthah  was  Httle  more  than  a 
rough  freebooter  in  whom  such  faith  in  the  God  of  his  fathers  as  he  had 
could  scarcely  struggle  into  half-formed  shape.  And  the  deeds  of  Samson 
are  those  of  one  on  whom  a  higher  mood  came  rarely  and  whose  faith 
could  never  embody  itself  in  steady  purpose.  Such  as  they  were,  his 
deeds  did  not  touch  the  popular  heart  or  rouse  the  energy  even  of  his 
own  tribe.  With  those  who  fought  for  Israel  in  the  days  of  Eli,  the 
lowest  depth  is  reached.  In  the  weak  old  man  himself,  there  was  still 
some  spark  of  devotion  to  Jehovah  and  his  cause ;  but,  from  all  around 
him,  the  last  relics  of  reverence  and  noble  purpose  and  moral  life  were 
gone.i  On  the  fatal  day  when  the  glory  departed  and  the  ark  of  God 
was  taken,  the  Israel  that  drew  its  life  from  Shiloh  fell  as  completely  as 
Saxon  England  had  fallen  when  Duke  William's  meal  was  spread  in 
the  place  of  slaughter  at  nightfall  of  the  day  of  Saint  Calixtus." 

This  suggests  what  is  needed  beyond  the  prowess  or 
ascendancy  of  personal  leaders.  It  is  what  is  here  called 
vision  :  that  insight  into  life  and  truth  beyond  the  impulse 
or  passion  of  the  moment,  that  educated  conscience  and 
sincere  homage  to  the  ideal,  which  the  primitive  people 
depended  on  their  prophets  to  impart,  but  which  we  get 
through  our  heritage  of  literature.  For  the  true  and  solid 
progress  of  mankind  there  must  be  evolved  a  body  of 
literary  instruction  ;  a  fund  of  ideas,  tested,  authoritative,  in- 
spiring, comprehensive,  which  shall  be  the  property  of  all, 
and  whose  power  will  work  in  the  common  mind  when 
the  masterful  personage  is  not  present  or  after  he  is  dead. 
Such  literature  traces  indeed  to  personal  sources.     But  to 

^  I  Sam.  ii,  17,  22. 
[75] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

the  power  of  the  person,  who  with  all  his  greatness  may 
be  capricious  or  inconsistent  or  one-sided,  must  be  added 
the  steadying  and  enlightening  power  of  ideas. 

Note.  On  the  need  beyond  personal  ascendancy,  Professor  Gardiner 
remarks,  in  "  Exploratio  Evangelica,"  p.  5  :  "  It  is  true  that  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a  mighty  spirit  and  leader  of  men,  his  direct  commands  may  be 
taken  as  principles  of  action,  and  not  expressed  in  terms  of  the  intellect. 
But  in  ordinary  times,  and  among  thoughtful  men,  religious  doctrine  is 
as  necessary  to  the  healthy  and  normal  development  of  a  community  as 
are  faith  and  self-denial." 

Our  survey  of  the  times  before  the  age  of  books  has 
revealed  literature  as  it  were  in  the  germ  :    the  song,  the 
p  _      mashal,  the  elegy,  the  folk  tale,  all  like  a  run- 
sonaito         wild   oral   utterance.     It  is   significant,   however. 
Biblical  j.j^^^  later,   when  the   specific  lines  of  literature 

are  gathered  into  a  permanent  canon — law,  prophecy,  poetry 
—  all  are  attributed  to  personal  sources  of  this  period. 
To  Moses  is  ascribed  the  beginnings  of  law,  to  Samuel 
the  beginnings  of  prophecy  and  statesmanship,  to  David 
the  beginnings  of  lyric  religious  poetry.  One  more  great 
name,  that  of  Solomon,  is  connected  with  a  literary  type, 
the  mashal  or  wisdom  type  ;  and  his  activity  immediately 
succeeds  to  this  period  of  the  Semina  Litterarum.  Thus 
the  great  centers  of  literary  light  and  influence  are  recog- 
nized as  personal ;  but  their  personality  is  translated  into 
abiding  ideas. 


[76] 


CHAPTER   II 

AWAKING   OF  THE   LITERARY  SENSE 
[Under  the  reign  of  Solomon,  970-933  B.C.] 

THE  founding  of  the  Temple,  in  the  fourth  year  of  King 
Solomon's  reign  (i  Kings  vi,  i)  was  deemed  by  the 
Scripture  historians  to  mark  an  important  date  in  the  nation's 
life  :  important  both  for  the  period  that  it  closed  and  for 
the  new  order  then  opening.  The  number  of  years  after 
the  deliverance  from  Egypt  was  carefully  noted,  as  if  that 
closing  period  had  its  own  meaning.  The  year  of  the  king's 
reign,  and  the  month,  are  noted  with  equal  care,  as  if  the 
event  thus  dated  were  an  epoch  for  all  time.  When  a  nation 
can  thus  begin  to  number  its  years,  and  to  set  off  periods 
of  its  history,  its  existence  is  beginning  to  show  meaning 
and  promise  ;   it  has  an  organic  idea. 

The  religious  import  of  the  building  of  the  Temple  is 
obvious.  The  central  worship  of  Israel,  hitherto  held  in  a 
tent,  was  now  established  in  a  permanent  building.  Here 
then  was  the  religious  capital  of  the  nation :  a  center  for 
the  standard  service  and  instruction,  and  a  point  of  pilgrim- 
age for  the  various  annual  feasts.  But  because  religion  in 
ancient  times  was  never  dissociated  from  civic,  social,  and 
business  affairs,  the  import  of  this  event  for  the  nation's 
secular  life  was  equally  great.  The  Temple,  in  fact,  was  only 
one  of  a  whole  group  of  public  buildings,  which  included 
not  only  the  palace  of  the  king  but  an  extensive  series  of 
halls,  courts,  and  porches,  for  civic  administration  and  judg- 
ment.    As  time  went  on   it  became  the  central    place  for 

[77] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

« 

banking  and  business,  for  schools  and  tribunals,  for  archives 
and  libraries.  The  distinctive  national  life,  in  short,  was 
concentrated  here.^ 

I.  The  Quickened  National  Self-Consciousness 

The  founding  of  the  Temple  is  but  one  of  many  signs  of 
the  times  indicating  the  birth  of  national  self-consciousness 
among  the  scattered  tribes,  with  the  pride  and  patriotism 
corresponding.  At  this  epochal  point,  with  a  feeling  of  rest, 
security,  and  realized  hope,  the  Hebrew  people  could  look 
back  over  the  twelve  generations  of  almost  constant  war  and 
unsettledness,  and  of  the  gradual  fusion  of  rival  and  turbu- 
lent tribes  ;  until  now  Israel  had  become  a  united  nation, 
with  a  definite  standing  among  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

During  the  reign  of  Solomon  the  Israelites  and  their 
tributary  peoples  covered  the  largest  expanse  of  territory  the 
The  Larger  State  ever  Controlled  (i  Kings  iv,  20,  21).  As 
Civic  Scale  thg  reign  was  mainly  one  of  peace,  there  was 
opportunity  for  domestic  upbuilding  and  prosperity ;  and  this 
showed  itself  especially  in  the  king's  extensive  enterprises 
in  building,  which  just  for  the  Temple  and  the  royal  palace 
occupied  a  period  of  twenty  years.  To  promote  this  industry, 
much  of  which  was  carried  on  by  forced  labor,  and  to  pro- 
vide for  the  lavish  wants  of  the  court,  the  kingdom  was  or- 
ganized on  an  elaborate  scale ;  in  which  the  tribal  divisions, 
inherited  from  more  primitive  times,  were  discarded  from  the 
machinery  of  government,  and  an  organization  more  arbitrary 
and  despotic  took  their  place.  To  obtain  materials  for  build- 
ing, alliance  was  made  with  the  neighboring  kingdom  of  Tyre, 
in  which  were  situated  the  celebrated  forests  of  Lebanon. 
King  Solomon  also  made  commercial  ventures  on  his  own 
account ;  even  to  the  extent  of  a  navy  of  ships  and  a  port 
on  the  Red  Sea  (i  Kings  ix,  26),  and  a  partnership  in  the 
Phoenician  trade  with  Tartessus  in  Spain  (i  Kings  x,  22). 

'  G.  A.  Smith,  "Jerusalem,"  Vol.  I,  pp.  352  ff.,  365. 
[78] 


AWAKING  OF  THE  LITERARY  SENSE 

With  all  this  energy  in  government  and  commerce  Solo- 
mon had  also  a  disposition  for  display  and  luxury.  His 
temper  was  that  of  the  Oriental  despot ;  sagacious  indeed, 
and  not  willfully  tyrannical,  but  self-indulgent  and  extrava- 
gant, to  a  degree  that  cost  his  kingdom  dear.  One  thing, 
however,  his  reign  did,  in  spite  of  the  despotism  it  main- 
tained and  the  hardships  it  caused  :  it  raised  the  nation, 
hitherto  absorbed  in  local  and  clannish  affairs,  to  a  broader 
plane  of  civilization,  where  they  became  aware  of  a  world's 
interests  and  business.  This  brought  its  new  sphere  of 
relations  and  ideas. 

The  whole  tone  of  the  history  of  Solomon's  time,  as  we 
have  this  in  the  books  of  Kings  and  Chronicles  (i  Kings 
Reflection  in  ^^~^  ^  "  Chron.  i-ix),  Strongly  reflects  the  feeling 
the  Popular  of  childlike  wonder  and  zest  with  which  the 
"*  people,  to  whom  such  splendors  and  luxuries  as 

Solomon's  were  strange  and  new,  contemplated  the  more 
spacious  order  of  things.  His  wisdom,  his  wealth,  his  regal 
display,  his  magnificent  undertakings  in  architecture  and 
trade,  are  told  in  such  superlatives  as  indicate  that  the  teller 
was  not  to  the  manner  born.  No  other  personage  in  Israel's 
history,  in  fact,  is  surrounded  by  such  an  atmosphere  of 
legend  and  fancy  as  is  King  Solomon.  The  Scripture  ac- 
count, indeed,  is  sober  in  comparison  with  the  marvels  of 
many  Oriental  tales,  supernatural  and  magical,  that  are  told 
of  him  ;  but  the  heightened  tone  of  the  Scripture  accounts 
themselves  indicates  that  his  memory  lives  in  Israel's  kindled 
imagination  as  his  father  David's  memory  lives  in  their 
affections. 

All  this  indicates  that  under  Solomon  the  people  entered 
for  the  first  time  upon  a  stage  of  national  life  and  civiliza- 
tion wherein  their  native  genius  was  adapted  to  act  freely 
and  expand.  The  nomadic  and  pastoral  life  of  the  wilder- 
ness, or  a  life  purely  agricultural  and  rustic  such  as  they 
had  hitherto  lived  in  Canaan,  was  not  their  most  congenial 

[79] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

element.  Their  true  field  of  development  lay  in  a  social 
and  urban  type  of  civilization  :  a  life  which  opened  into 
prosperous  enterprise,  business  undertakings,  the  gain  and 
care  of  wealth,  intercourse  and  commerce  with  the  world. 
And  when  they  had  surmounted  their  primitive  conditions, 
and  found  themselves  on  the  threshold  of  this  kind  of 
life,  it  was  like  awaking  to  a  new  world  of  thought  and 
imagination. 

Such  awakening  naturally  finds  outlet  in  expression  where- 
in this  attitude  of  mind  has  free  and  creative  play.  Accord- 
ingly, it  is  to  this  age  that  we  trace  the  people's  quickened 
response  to  a  more  liberal  range  of  utterance  and  to  literary 
values  as  such.  We  perceive  it  in  the  way  the  native  liter- 
ary forms  pass  from  a  run-wild  and  artless  stage  to  a  stage 
of  self-conscious  and  disciplined  cultivation.  We  perceive  it 
too  in  the  way  the  more  dominating  types  of  literature  begin 
to  be  developed. 

n.  Initiative  in  Two  Gifted  Kings 

Not  only  was  the  people  of  Israel  responding  to  a  new 
type  and  stage  of  civilization.  Personal  influence  and  as- 
cendancy too  was  at  its  highest  and  wholesomest.  Out  of 
the  times  succeeding  the  chaotic  era  of  the  Judges  had  come 
names  of  strong  personalities,  whose  power  survived  to  tone 
up  the  people's  mind  :  Samuel,  the  venerable  last  judge  and 
king-maker  ;  Saul,  the  ill-fated  first  king  and  military  cham- 
pion ;  Jonathan,  the  brave  and  chivalrous  crown  prince  un- 
timely slain  ;  David,  who  as  popular  hero  even  in  outlawTy 
and  forced  exile  showed  his  essential  nobility  and  magna- 
nimity of  character,  and  in  his  succession  to  royalty  not  only 
established  a  capital  and  religious  center  but  built  himself 
into  men's  hearts  in  a  love  which  condoned  his  faults  ;  Joab, 
whose  able  generalship  went  far  to  atone  for  his  hard  arbi- 
trariness of  nature  ;  and  finally  Solomon,  whose  sagacity  and 

[So] 


AWAKING  OF  THE  LITERARY  SENSE 

organizing  vigor  so  captivated  the  people's  imagination  that 
they  were  well  pleased,  for  a  time,  to  submit  their  national 
pace  to  his  scale  of  Oriental  luxury  and  splendor.  Never 
afterward  in  their  history  did  the  tide  of  personal  ascendancy 
rise  so  high. 

Of  these  great  names  two  stand  out  preeminent  in  this 
period  for  the  impulse  they  gave  to  literature.  They  are 
the  names  of  the  two  kings,  father  and  son,  David  and 
Solomon.  Each  of  these  was  in  his  way  generously  endowed 
with  literary  gifts  ;  and  each  is  identified  in  tradition  with 
a  type  of  the  more  artistic  and  developed  literature.  In  tra- 
dition, I  say,  rather  than  in  history  ;  for  their  actual  work, 
if  any  of  it  is  extant,  is  buried  in  the  work  of  later  genera- 
tions. It  is  important  therefore  to  note  what  historical  war- 
rant there  is,  if  any,  for  ascribing  to  them  so  eminent  a 
place  in  the  nation's  roll  of  authorship. 


David's  Part  in  the  Literary  Awakening.  As  a  minstrel 
and  singer,  endowed  with  the  gift  both  of  poetry  and  of  music, 
David  was  already  famous  in  youth.  It  was  he,  it  will  be  re- 
membered, who  was  sent  for  to  charm  away  the  melancholic 
spirit  of  King  Saul  by  his  harp-playing  (i  Sam.  xvi,  14-23). 
He  is  mentioned  by  the  prophet  Amos  in  connection  with 
the  musical  instruments  used  in  secular  feasts  (Amos  vi,  5)  ; 
and  the  instruments  used  in  the  orchestral  service  of  the 
Temple  in  King  Hezekiah's  time  were  called  "  instruments 
of  David  "  (2  Chron.  xxix,  26,  27  ;  cf.  i  Chron.  xxiii,  5). 
These  references  would  indicate  that  his  chief  distinction 
was  as  an  inventor  and  maker  of  stringed  instruments.  In 
the  poem  ascribed  to  him  as  his  "last  words,"  however,  he 
is  described  as 

The  anointed  of  the  (lOcl  of  Jacob, 
And  the  sweet  psahnist  of  Israel ; 

[81] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

or,  more  literally,  "the  joy  of  the  songs  of  Israel,"  where  the 
word  for  songs  is  the  specific  term  for  songs  set  to  music. 

Of  undoubted  poetic  compositions  from  his  hand  we  have 
the  famous  lament  over  Saul  and  Jonathan  (2  Sam.  i,  19-27), 
and  a  shorter  one  over  Abner  (2  Sam.  iii,  33,  34),  to  show 
that  he  cultivated  the  form  of  song  called  the  kinah,  or 
elegy.  Besides  these  there  are  ascribed  to  him  a  song  of 
thanksgiving  (2  Sam.  xxii),  composed  when  his  kingdom 
was  securely  established,  —  the  same  poem  being  repeated 
as  one  of  the  Psalms  (Psa.  xviii)  ;  and  an  ode  called  "  the 
last  words  of  David  "  (2  Sam.  xxiii,  1-7),  in  which  latter 
the  aged  monarch  passes  in  devout  and  grateful  review  the 
experiences  of  his  reign. 

King  David's  chief  literary  distinction,  however,  consists 
in  the  fact  that  tradition  has  made  him  the  father  of  Israel's 
sacred  lyric  poetry.  A  whole  scripture  book,  the  Book  of 
Psalms,  though  containing  many  poems  ascribed  to  other 
authors,  is  named  for  him  as  founder  and  originator.  As 
completely  compiled,  it  appears  as  the  anthem  book  for  the 
temple  services  ;  and  to  the  individual  Psalms  are  appended 
many  titles,  or  labels,  relating  to  their  authorship,  their  musi- 
cal use,  their  class  as  poems,  and  their  historical  occasion. 
Of  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  Psalms  contained  in  the  book 
seventy-three  are  ascribed  to  David.  It  is  to  be  remembered, 
however,  that  these  titles  are  later  additions  to  the  text,  rep- 
resenting the  conclusions  of  compilers  long  after  David's 
time  ;  and  we  do  not  know  what  warrant  these  had  for 
attributing  the  poems  to  David.  We  are  to  remember  also 
that  these  Psalms,  as  they  were  used  for  liturgical  purposes, 
were  subject  like  our  hymns  to  revision  and  adaptation  to 
later  conditions.  The  conjecture,  therefore,  just  what  or  how 
many  of  the  Psalms  are  of  David's  actual  composition,  is 
hazardous.  At  the  same  time,  the  appended  titles,  while  not 
to  be  trusted  implicitly,  are  not  to  be  too  lightly  dismissed. 
They  represent  at  least  a  very  old  tradition. 

[82] 


AWAKING  OF  THE  LITERARY  SENSE 

The  Book  of  Psalms  as  a  gradually  compiled  and  even- 
tually completed  collection  will  come  up  for  consideration 
later.^  Our  concern  here  is  with  David's  relation  to  it, 
which  as  we  shall  see  was  larger  than  that  of  mere  author- 
ship and  musical  genius. 

II 

Solomon's  Relation  to  Literature.  Although  Solomon 
is  known  to  history  as  the  builder  of  the  Temple  and  so 
as  the  organizer  of  a  centralized  state  worship,  his  personal, 
influence  was  not  distinctively  religious.  Nor  was  he,  as  his 
father  had  been,  a  man  of  war.  He  was  on  the  one  side 
a  man  of  the  world,  interested  in  civic,  industrial,  and 
commercial  affairs,  and  on  the  other  side,  a  man  of  liberal 
artistic  and  literary  tastes.  It  was  in  these  directions  that 
he  gave  a  new  and  powerful  impulse  to  the  progress  of 
the  Israelite  state.  When  he  began  to  reign  over  them  the 
people  were  clannish  and  provincial ;  he  worked  to  infuse 
into  them  something  of  a  cosmopolitan  sense,  and  to  give 
them  self-confidence  and  self-respect  as  a  nation. 

Solomon's  love  of  display  and  luxury,  which  is  such 
a  striking  feature  of  his  reign,  was  only  a  surface  trait, 
like  the  untempered  tastes  of  the  new-rich.  Nor  was  his 
despotism  so  much  a  disposition  as  a  careless  aping  of  the 
ways  of  other  Oriental  monarchs.  The  inherent  quality 
for  which  succeeding  ages  have  known  and  honored  him 
is  his  wisdom.  In  the  popular  account  of  his  reign,  as 
reflected  in  the  narratives  of  i  Kings,  this  is  set  forth  by 
the  story  of  his  dream  request  at  Gibeon  and  its  answer 
(i  Kings  iii,  4-15)  ;  by  a  specimen  example  of  his  acute- 
ness  and  sagacity  as  a  magistrate  (i  Kings  iii,  16-28)  ;  and 
by  his  cleverness  in  answering  the  hard  questions  of  the 
Queen  of  Sheba  (i   Kings  x,   i-io).     Such  things  would 

^  See  Chapter  V,  I,  iii,  "Treasures  from  the  Older  Literature,"  and 
Chapter  Vlll,  II,  i,  "The  Five  Books  of  Psalms." 

[83] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

take  the  fancy,  as  they  still  do,  of  a  people  not  yet  schooled 
to  literature.  But  beyond  this  also,  there  is  introduced  into 
the  story  of  his  reign  an  element  the  like  of  which  we  do 
not  see  under  any  other  monarch,  except  to  some  degree 
under  Hezekiah.  From  the  enthusiastic  account  in  i  Kings 
iv,  29-34,  we  see  that  his  court  was  not  only  a  center  of 
wealth  and  luxury  but  of  keen  intellectual  activity.  Stimu- 
lated by  the  brilliant  versatility  of  the  young  king,  the  men 
of  rank  and  position  began  to  cultivate  literature  for  its 
own  sake,  and  with  regard  not  only  to  its  substance  but 
its  artistry.  Their  work  was,  in  its  primitive  way,  something 
like  the  vigorous  intellectual  activity  of  the  court  sonneteers 
and  euphuists  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  time.  Of  the  extraor- 
dinary literary  vigor  of  Solomon's  reign  the  king  himself 
was  the  promoter  and  patron,  surpassing  the  cleverest  men 
of  letters  in  their  own  field.  He  spoke,  it  is  said,  three 
thousand  proverbs  or  mashals ;  and  his  songs  were  one 
thousand  and  five.  The  sources  from  which  he  drew  his 
lessons  of  wisdom  are  indicated  :  the  realm  of  animal  and 
vegetable  nature,  which  suggested  to  him  a  wealth  of  spirit- 
ual analogies.  The  principle  of  the  mashal,  as  we  will 
recall,  is  likeness  or  analogy  ;  and  here  not  natural  science 
but  the  definite  search  for  such  lessons  is  meant.  It  was 
like  the  occupation  of  the  Duke  in  Shakespeare's  play,  who 
with  his  companions  in  cultured  leisure  is  curious  to 

Find  tongues  in  trees,  books  in  the  running  brooks, 
Sermons  in  stones  and  good  in  everything.^ 

It  is  from  what  this  account  indicates,  especially,  that  we 
deduce  our  chapter  heading,  Awaking  of  the  Literary  Sense. 
We  trace  this  awaking  to  the  time  and  court  of  King 
Solomon,  and  to  men  of  refinement  and  taste  who  were 
ardent  in  the  pursuit  of  letters  and  learning  to  emulate  the 
men  of  other  nations. 

^  "As  You  Like  It,"  Act  II,  scene  i,  16. 

[84] 


AWAKING  OF  THE  LITERARY  SENSE 

Of  literary  work  that  in  its  present  form  can  be  identi- 
fied as  Solomon's  there  is  much  less  than  in  the  case 
of  David.  His  speech  at  the  dedication  of  the  Temple 
(i  Kings  viii,  12-21),  which  there  is  reason  to  think  may 
have  been  originally  preserved  in  the  Book  of  Jashar,i  is 
likeliest  to  have  been  his  personal  utterance.  Two  of  the 
Psalms  (Ixxii,  cxxvii)  are  by  title  ascribed  to  him,  and  the 
sentiment  and  subject  matter  of  them  are  not  unfitting  to 
his  time  ;  we  are  to  remember,  however,  that  the  titles  of 
the  Psalms  are  later  than  the  text  and  perhaps  conjectural. 

Two  books  of  Scripture  have  his  name  in  their  titles. 
They  are  :  "  The  Proverbs  of  Solomon  the  Son  of  David, 
King  of  Israel,"  and  "The  Song  of  Songs,  which  is 
Solomon's."  The  first  of  these,  however,  is  confessedly 
a  collection  of  utterances  from  various  authors  and  ages  ; 
and  at  Chapter  x,  i,  the  title  "The  Proverbs  of  Solomon  " 
is  repeated,  as  if  to  distinguish  his  work  from  that  of  others. 
The  attribution  to  Solomon  therefore,  it  would  seem,  may 
be  meant  to  express  not  personal  authorship  but  kind  or 
style ;  as  if  in  modern  terms  we  should  say  Solomonic 
mashals,  as  distinguished  from  those  of  other  species.  As 
a  matter  of  fact  the  mashals  thus  named  are  so  different 
from  others  as  to  merit  that  distinguishing  term.  In  the 
same  way  the  "  Song  of  Songs,  which  is  Solomon's,"  may 
designate  the  highest  example  of  that  peculiar  species  of  song 
the  Solomonic  ;  it  is  certainly  very  different  from  any  other 
songs  in  the  Bible.  Both  these  books  then,  as  it  would  seem, 
stand  as  monuments  of  the  literary  movement  which  began 
with  the  awaking  of  the  literary  sense  in  Solomon's  time  ; 
the  nature  of  which  movement  we  have  now  to  consider. 

Note.  So/oinon''s  Fame  and  iXaine  in  Literature.  Besides  the 
Proverbs  and  the  Song  of  Songs,  which  are  ascribed  to  Solomon  by 
name,  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes,  or  Koheleth,  purports,  under  a  symbolic 
name  meaning  the  "  preacher  "  or  "  counselor,"  to  give  King  Solomon's 

^  See  above,  p.  60,  note. 

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philosophy  of  Ufe.  Its  title  is,  "  The  Words  of  the  Preacher  (Koheleth, 
Ecclesiastes),  the  Son  of  David,  King  in  Jerusalem"  ;  and  in  the  portion 
from  Chapter  i,  1 2,  to  ii,  26,  Solomon's  wealth  and  wisdom,  his  use 
of  them  and  its  results,  are  ideally  described.  In  the  later  times  before 
Christ,  whpn  it  was  a  general  custom  to  name  books  for  illustrious 
personages,  one  of  the  apocryphal  books,  purporting  to  contain  wisdom 
that  came  to  Solomon  in  answer  to  his  prayer  at  Gibeon  (cf.  Wisdom, 
vii,  7,  8 ;  ix,  7,  8),  is  called  "  The  Wisdom  of  Solomon."  There  is  also 
a  collection  of  psalms,  eighteen  in  number,  compiled  only  a  few  decades 
before  Christ,  which,  on  the  warrant  of  titles  similar  to  those  of  the 
Davidic  Psalms,  is  called  "  The  Psalms  of  Solomon." 


III.   Evolution  of  Literary  Types  and  Functions 

Among  the  types  enumerated  in  the  preceding  chapter 
under  "  the  native  mold  of  hterary  form,"  we  have  men- 
tioned the  song  and  the  mashal  as  especially  congenial  to 
the  Hebrew  mind.  These  two  types  were  the  first  to  feel 
the  stirring  of  the  new  spirit  under  the  favoring  conditions 
of  the  united  kingdom,  and  the  first  to  be  molded  and 
refined  from  the  instinctive  to  the  artistic.  Lender  Solomon 
a  differentiating  and  specializing  process  took  place  ;  giving 
rise,  in  form,  to  various  styles  of  song  and  mashal,  and  in 
content,  to  a  fine  adjustment  of  each  type  to  its  fitting  sub- 
ject matter.  The  history  of  this  process  is  obscure  because 
we  have  only  the  finished  books,  published  long  afterward, 
to  show  for  it ;  but  of  its  vigorous  beginnings  in  the  in- 
spiring times  of  Solomon,  and  of  its  cultural  growth  and 
ripening  thereafter,  we  have  no  reason  to  doubt. 

In  two  distinct  yet  harmonious  lines  this  evolution  of 
the  native  literary  types  may  be  traced,  as  they  become 
more  familiarized  in  the  thought,  the  worship,  and  the 
education  of  the  people.  These  lines  extend  respectively 
from  the  finer  development  of  the  song  and  the  mashal. 


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The  Lyric  Strain,  General  and  Sacred.  The  songs  and 
fragments  of  song  that  up  to  the  time  of  Solomon  are 
quoted  in  the  text  of  the  history  relate  to  matters  of  public 
import,  such  as  events  in  the  nation's  exp'erience  or  in  the 
lives  of  eminent  men.  It  is  to  this  fact,  indeed,  that  we 
owe  their  preservation  at  all.  To  the  individual  emotions, 
such  as  are  universal  to  all,  there  is  less  reference.  Yet 
here  is  the  very  feeding  ground  of  lyric  poetry :  the  joys 
and  sorrows  of  the  home,  the  passions  and  aspirations  of 
the  heart,  the  common  experiences  of  life,  secular  and 
sacred.  It  is  to  these,  rather  tfian  to  national  affairs,  that 
the  new  lyrical  movement  seems  to  have  been  directed. 

In  the  account  of  Solomon's  literary  versatility  in 
I  Kings  iv,  29-34,  we  find  him  not  alone  but  associated 
Of  the  Solo-  with  a  group  of  men  some  of  whose  names  are 
monic  School  given,  all  engaged  in  occupations  of  culture  and 
learning.  In  other  words,  there  is  here  given  a  glimpse  of  a 
Solomonic  school,  or  fellowship,  of  which  the  king  himself 
is  the  head  and  patron,  sharing  in  the  intellectual  pursuits 
of  his  subjects.  His  own  songs,  the  account  says,  were  a 
thousand  and  five.  It  is  not  likely  that  he  monopolized  the 
lyrical  activity ;  he  was  merely  the  leading  spirit  in  a  notable 
movement.  Of  its  further  history,  or  of  works  traceable  to  it, 
we  have  no  subsequent  account,  except  that  tw'O  of  the  men 
here  named,  Ethan  and  Ileman,  are  mentioned  as  the  authors 
of  Psalms,  Ethan  of  Psa.  Ixxxix,  and  Heman  of  Psa.  Ixxxviii, 
and  both  are  mentioned  in  i  Chron.  xv,  19,  in  the  list  of 
David's  singers.  In  reading  about  Solomon's  exploits  in  verse 
one  cannot  but  recognize  something  of  the  amateur  and  crafts- 
man. His  songs  were  not  so  truly  the  lyric  passion  wreaking 
itself  out  of  a  full  heart  on  life,  as  they  were  exercises  in  lyric 
art,  like  the  work  of  an  enthusiastic  student.  They  were  not 
of  Biblical  theme  or  caliber,  and  so  have  not  survived. 

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One  specimen  remains  to  us,  however,  of  the  work  of 
this  Solomonic  school,  which  shows  that  these  courtiers 
were  engaged  in  something  more  than  elegant  trifling.  It 
is  the  Scripture  book  entitled  "'  The  Song  of  Songs,  which 
is  Solomon's,"  We  can  neither  ascribe  nor  deny  it  to 
Solomon  himself,  nor  are  there  internal  marks  to  deter- 
mine when  it  was  written  ;  but  of  the  Solomonic  school  of 
lyric  art  it  claims  by  title  to  be  the  supreme'  product.  It  is 
a  cycle  of  exquisite  love  poems,  the  only  Scripture  book, 
indeed,  dealing  with  the  theme  of  sexual  mating  and  love. 
The  cycle  has  been  deemed  a  kind  of  masque  or  drama ; 
but  a  coherent  plot  or  a  consistent  situation  is  hard  to  trace. 
There  is,  however,  a  noble  consistency  and  beauty  in  the 
general  spirit  and  sentiment  of  the  book.  Doubts  have  been 
expressed  as  to  its  fitting  place  in  a  Scripture  canon  ;  but 
if  the  sexual  relation,  most  common  and  potent  of  human 
passions,  needs  light  and  guidance  from  above,  surely  the 
Bible  has  a  legitimate  mission  in  dealing  with  it.  And  this 
Song  of  Solomon  deals  with  the  matter  in  a  way  not  un- 
worthy of  Biblical  sanction.  In  reading  it  we  have  of  course 
to  realize  that  it  comes  to  us  from  an  Oriental  race  and 
land,  with  its  Asiatic  imagery  and  atmosphere,  and  that  its 
scene  is  a  royal  harem.  Yet  out  of  this  equivocal  environ- 
ment are  drawn  conceptions  of  beauty  and  sanity,  which 
though  richly  sensuous  are  not  at  all  sensual  or  salacious  ; 
which  portray  love  as  a  sacred  and  spiritual  thing,  and 
woman  not  as  the  slave  or  the  plaything  of  man  but  as 
an  equal  mate,  who  in  her  native  purity  and  strength  can 
hold  her  own  personality  inviolate  against  courts  and  kings. 
Thus  we  may  rank  the  portra}'al  with  the  noblest  modern 
ideals.  Solomon  had  a  harem  which  was  his  undoing 
(I  Kings  xi,  i-8)  ;  Solomon's  Song,  whose  heroine  is  a 
simple  country  girl  sturdily  loyal  to  her  virgin  love,  makes 
the  harem  seem  a  base  and  paltry  thing.  And  its  net  im- 
pression, refined  by  the  matured  lyric  art,  is  that  of  a  pure, 

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AWAKING  OF  THE  LITERARY  SENSE 

faithful,  resolute  love,  on  which  lust  and  luxury  have  no 
power.  Such  a  theme,  which  later  times  selected  as  the 
crowning  lyric  product  of  the  Solomonic  school,  vindicates 
the  high  mission  of  literature,  as  it  sets  itself  to  put  into 
order  and  beauty  the  common  values  of  life. 

In  the  literary  activity  of  Solomon  and  his  court  we  have 
seen  how  poetry  was  cultivated  by  the  higher  and  more 
„,  ^^  cultured  classes,  and  in  what  social  and  secular 

Oi  the  ' 

Davidic  Stratum    of    sentiment    it    moved.     But   for   the 

n  uence  people  of  all  classes,  with  their  common  moral 
and  religious  needs,  the  field  waj  already  preempted  by  the 
influence  of  David's  poetical  and  musical  gifts,  and  still 
more  by  the  perpetuated  power  of  his  personality.  Accord- 
ing to  the  compiler  of  the  Books  of  Chronicles  it  was 
David  who,  as  soon  as  he  had  brought  up  the  ark  from  its 
wanderings  to  his  newly  won  capital,  organized  the  sanctu- 
ary ritual  mainly  as  a  service  of  song  with  orchestral  accom- 
paniment (i  Chron.  xvi,  4-7),  and  who  later  conformed  this 
organization  by  anticipation  to  the  Temple  which  his  son 
Solomon  was  to  build  (i  Chron.  xxv,  1-7).  This  account 
may  be,  as  to  details,  the  notion  of  a  later  historian  read 
back  into  the  past ;  but  what  seems  certain  is  that  the  soul 
of  the  Temple  service,  its  spirit  of  worship  and  praise  and 
confession,  was  a  heritage  not  from  Solomon  the  builder, 
whose  tastes  were  quite  other,  but  from  his  father  David, 
the  real  founder  of  popular  and  centralized  worship.  In 
other  words,  the  prevailing  strain  of  the  lyric  art  in  Israel, 
deriving  from  the  devout  personality  of  David,  was  laid  out 
on  religious  aspirations  and  themes.  And  the  outcome  is 
before  us  in  the  Book  of  Psalms,  which  from  gradual  growth 
into  the  hymn  book  of  the  Israelites  has  become,  and  beyond 
all  other  books  remains,  the  hymn  book  of  the  world. 

Though  in  a  narrow  critical  sense  we  cannot  ascribe  in- 
dividual Psalms  with  absolute  certainty  to  David,  in  a  more 
real  and  vital  sense  his  personal  stamp  is  upon  the  whole 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

psalm  type.  To  him  be)ond  any  other  person  we  owe  it 
that  song  was  turned  into  the  rehgious  channel,  and  that 
The  Personal  it  became  the  utterance  of  the  personal  religious 
Keynote  ]\fQ  Thus  from  the  beginning  of  the  worship  on 
Zion  these  Psalms  were  the  main  factor  to  make  worship  a 
thing  of  the  heart  rather  than  of  external  ritual  or  of  mystic 
divination.  It  was  a  matter  of  direct  individual  communion 
with  Jehovah,  and  available  to  every  common  man.  And 
tradition  was  not  slow  to  recognize. the  personal  source  and 
manner  of  this  lyric  strain.  This  is  quite  evident  in  the 
titles  appended  to  the  Psalms.  Of  the  Psalms  attributed  to 
him,  thirteen  are  by  title  associated  with  particular  events 
in  his  life,  and  eight  of  these  with  incidents  in  his  early 
experience  of  enforced  outlawry,  when  his  personality  came 
in  closest  touch  with  the  people.  In  general  too,  in  the 
transition  that  was  taking  place  from  a  fierce  and  warlike 
age  to  an  age  of  peace  and  prosperity,  this  power  of  per- 
sonality made  David  one  of  the  most  refining  and  civilizing 
agencies  that  the  history  of  Israel  ever  knew.  He  became 
the  kingly  type  to  which  the  later  Hebrew  imagination  re- 
verted, and  on  which  was  modeled  the  Messiah  idea ;  an 
idea  which  derives  both  from  the  man  and  from  the  spirit 
of  the  poetry  of  which  he  was  the  pioneer  cultivator.  His 
molding  power  over  the  mind  and  heart  of  his  nation  thus 
anticipated  the  truth  of  Pletcher  of  Saltoun's  remark  :  "I 
knew  a  very  wise  man  that  believed  that  if  a  man  were 
permitted  to  make  all  the  ballads,  he  need  not  care  who 
should  make  the  laws  of  a  nation." 

Note.  Davidic  Psalms  tvitJi  Historical  Headings.  The  following 
Psalms,  all  ascribed  to  David,  are  referred  by  the  later  added  titles  to 
events  of  his  life,  mostly  verifiable  from  the  history  : 

Psalm  iii.  "A  Psalm  of  David  when  he  fled  from  Absalom  his  son."' 
Cf.  2  Sam.  XV,  13-18. 

Psalm  vii.  "  Shiggaion  of  David,  which  he  sang  unto  Jehovah  con- 
cerning the  words  of  Cush  a  Benjamite." 

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AWAKING  OF  THE  LITERARY  SENSE 

Psalm  xviii.  "A  Psalm  of  David  the  servant  of  Jehovah,  who  spake 
unto  Jehovah  the  words  of  this  song  in  the  day  that  Jehovah  delivered 
him  from  the  hand  of  all  his  enemies,  and  from  the  hand  of  Saul." 
Cf.  2  Sam.  xxii. 

Psalm  XXX.  "A  Psalm;  a  Song  at  the  dedication  of  the  house;  a 
Psalm  of  David." 

Psalm  xxxiv.  "  A  Psalm  of  David ;  when  he  changed  his  behaviour 
before  Abimelech,  who  drove  him  away,  and  he  departed."  Cf 
I  Sam.  xxi,  10-15.    (Achish  in  I  Sam.) 

Psalm  li.  "A  Psalm  of  David;  when  Nathan  the  prophet  came  unto 
him,  after  he  had  gone  in  to  Bath-sheba."    Cf.  2  Sam.  xii,  1-15. 

Psalm  lii.  "  Maschil  of  I3avid :  when  Doeg  the  Edomite  came  and 
told  Saul,  and  said  unto  him,  David  is  come  to  the  house  of  Ahimelech." 
Cf.  I  Sam.  xxii,  g. 

Psalm  Hv.  "  Maschil  of  David :  when  the  Ziphites  came  and  said  to 
Saul,  Doth  not  David  hide  himself  with  us?"    Cf.  i  Sam.  xxiii,  19. 

Psalm  Ivi.  "A  Psalm  of  David:  Michtam :  when  the  Philistines 
took  him  in  Gath."    Cf.  i  Sam.  xxi,  10,  11. 

Psalm  Ivii.  "A  Psalm  of  David:  Michtam:  when  he  fled  from  Saul, 
in  the  cave."    Cf.  i  Sam.  xxii,  i. 

Psalm  lix.  "A  Psalm  of  David:  Michtam:  when  Saul  sent,  and 
they  watched  the  house  to  kill  him."    Cf.  i  Sam.  xix,  i  i. 

Psalm  Ix.  "  Michtam  of  David,  to  teach :  when  he  strove  with 
Aram-naharaim  and  with  Aram-zobah,  and  Joab  returned,  and  smote 
of  Edom  in  the  Valley  of  Salt  twelve  thousand."    Cf.  2  Sam.  viii,  3,  13. 

Psalm  Ixiii.  A  Psalm  of  David,  when  he  was  in  the  wilderness  of  Judah. 

Psalm  cxlii.  "  Maschil  of  David,  when  he  was  in  the  cave ;  a 
Prayer."  Cf.  I  Sam.  xxii,  i  ;  xxiv,  3. 

A  word  about  the  permanent  values  of  the  Psalms  may 

here  be  added.    The  collection  has  been  called,  too  restrict- 

edlv  I   think,   "the  anthem-book  of  the  second 

The  Per- 

manentand    Temple,"  —  that    is,   of  the  Temple  built  after 

Universal       ^-^g  Jews'  return  from  the  Chaldean  exile.    Rather, 
Elements  ,,     .        ,  1    1      • 

we  may  call  it  the  sacred  lyric  accompaniment 
of  the  Hebrew  life,  both  personal  and  national,  from  the 
time  that  David  set  up  the  tabernacle  in  Jerusalem  till  a 
century  and  a  half  before  Christ.  A  deposit  from  all  the 
ages  of  Israelite  worship,  these  Psalms  rise  many  times  out 
of  special  events  or  occasions  ;  but  they  contain  permanent 

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elements  which  make  them  equally  fitting  when  the  specific 

occasion  is  forgotten.    Or  else  the  occasion,  literal  to  begin 

with,  becomes  in  course  of  time  symbolic  or  allegorical ;  so 

that  succeeding  generations  can  apply  it  as  naturally  to  their 

own  inner  experience  as  if  the  concrete  event  had  befallen 

them.     It   is  the   Hebrew   poets'   recognition   of  the   truth 

enunciated  by  Goethe  : 

2lIIeg  SSergcinglid^e 
Sft  nur  ein  (Sleid^mf;. 

Thus  the  Psalms  have  done  more  than  any  other  literature 
of  the  Bible  to  make  the  history  of  Israel  symbolic,  as  if 
it  were  a  divinely  composed  allegory  or  object  lesson  ;  nor 
that  only,  but  to  create  the  whole  religious  dialect  of  suc- 
ceeding ages  in  terms  of  Hebrew  thought  and  feeling.  The 
lyrical  genius  of  the  psalmists  converted  the  local  and  temporal 
situations  of  their  experience  into  universal  religious  values. 

Note.  Psalm  Occasions.  In  this  adaptation  of  particular  occasions 
to  devotional  uses,  partly  because  the  poet  had  not  the  occasion  but  the 
lesson  at  heart,  and  partly  because  the  psalms  were  subject  to  later  re- 
visions, the  occasions  became  so  disguised  that  it  is  hard  to  identify 
them  beyond  doubt.  Among  the  more  likely  ones  we  may  instance  : 
Psalm  xxiii,  which  seems  a  reminiscence  of  David's  youth  and  days  of 
war ;  Psalm  xxiv,  which  seems  to  celebrate  the  bringing  of  the  Ark 
either  to  Mount  Zion,  whither  Uavid  transported  it,  or  to  Solomon's 
Temple ;  Psalm  xlvi,  which  seems  to  have  been  composed  on  the  occa- 
sion of  building  an  aqueduct  in  the  time  of  Hezekiah  to  conduct  water 
into  the  city  for  time  of  siege ;  Psalm  cxxiv,  which  seems  to  celebrate 
the  wonderful  escape  of  Jerusalem  from  capture  by  Sennacherib ;  and 
Psalm  cxxxvii,  which  comes  from  the  experience  of  the  exiles  in  Baby- 
lon. In  all  these  cases  the  Psalm  is  expressed  in  terms  not  merely  of 
local  but  of  such  universal  experience  as  all  worshipers  can  avail 
themselves  of  and  make   their  own. 

II 

The  Wisdom  Strain,  and  the  Sages.  It  was  not  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  lyric  that  gave  Solomon  his  chief  claim  to  literary 
distinction,  but  the  development  of  the  mashal  from  the  crude 


AWAKING  OF  THE  LITERARY  SENSE 

form  of  the  popular  maxim  or  parable  to  a  highly  finished 
verse  form,  which  was  in  course  of  time  made  the  vehicle 
of  a  whole  strain  of  didactic  literature,  called  by  later  scholars 
the  Wisdom  literature.^  Of  this  strain  of  literature  the  Book 
of  Proverbs,  which  as  we  have  seen  is  associated  with  Solo- 
mon, is  the  most  typical  product.  In  addition  to  this  book 
the  matured  literature  of  Wisdom  contains  the  Books  of  Job 
and  Ecclesiastes  in  the  Hebrew  canon,  and  in  the  Apocrypha 
the  Book  of  Jesus  Sirach,  or  Ecclesiasticus,  and  the  Wisdom 
of  Solomon.  All  this  literary  strain  we  may  regard  as  the 
current  of  thought  and  instmction  rising  out  of  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  mashal  and  initiated  by  Solomon  and  the  sages 
of  his  court. 

The  sages  do  not  seem  to  have  been  an  official  order,  as 
were  priests  and  prophets  ;  and  it  was  only  the  king's  par- 
ticipation in  their  work  that  gave  them  such  immediate 
distinction  and  popularity.  The  practical  usefulness  of  their 
work,  however,  was  soon  recognized  as  an  educative  factor. 
In  course  of  time  we  may  regard  the  cultivators  of  Wisdom 
as  essentially  schoolmasters  and  counselors,  especially  of  the 
young ;  men  of  age  and  ripe  experience,  who  sat  in  the  city 
gates  and  gave  counsel  in  sententious  precepts  and  figures, 
and  who  were  revered  for  what  they  were  rather  than  for 
their  official  station.  By  the  prophet  Ezekiel  they  are  called 
"ancients"  or  "  elders  "  (Ezek.  vii,  26).  An  idealized  por- 
trayal of  the  venerable  sage  is  drawn  by  Job,  in  his  descrip- 
tion of  himself  as  he  was  before  his  affliction  (Job  xxix,  7-25). 
The  sages  came  eventually  to  be  recognized  as  a  kind  of 
order  or  guild,  coordinate  in  the  national  cultural  agencies 
with  priests  and  prophets.  We  see  this  indicated  in  a  verse 
of  Jeremiah,  where  the  three  orders  with  their  functions  are 
mentioned.  "The  law,"  say  the  men  of  Israel,  "shall  not 
perish  from  the  priest,  nor  counsel  from  the  wise,  nor  the 

1  P'or  the  mashal  as  represented  in  the  native  mold  of  literary  form 
see  above,  pp.  64-72. 

[93] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

word  from  the  prophet"  (Jer.  xviii,  i8).  To  the  wise,  or 
sages,  is  thus  attributed  specifically  the  giving  of  counsel ; 
a  function  inherited  in  later  history  by  the  scribes  and  rabbis. 
The  word  "  wisdom  "  means  to  the  Hebrew  much  like  the 
word  "  philosophy  "  to  us.  It  was,  however,  philosophy  of  a 
Wisdom  as  quite  different  kind  from  ours,  as  befits  the  dif- 
to  Substance  ferent  national  and  racial  aptitude.  It  was  not 
speculative  or  metaphysical,  nor  was  it  expressed  in  trains 
of  reasoning.  Uttered  in  the  form  of  maxims  or  aphorisms, 
it  concerned  itself  with  matters  of  practical  sagacity  and 
conduct :  precepts  for  the  management  of  life,  with  its 
everyday  duties  of  industry,  purity,  temperance,  prudence, 
open-mindedness,  wisdom  of  speech  and  silence,  and  the 
like.  It  did  not  argue,  it  asserted ;  and  its  subject  matter 
was  such  as  could  be  affirmed  without  gainsaying.  It  was, 
in  a  word,  the  didactic  literature  of  Israel ;  and  from  the 
time  of  Solomon  to  Hezekiah  we  may  regard  it  as  the  chief 
vehicle  of  education  for  the  youth  and  the  common  people 
of  the  land.  In  the  preface  to  the  Book  of  Proverbs  its 
object  and  audience  are  thus  set  forth  : 

To  know  wisdom  and  instruction  : 

To  discern  the  words  of  understanding ; 

To  receive  instruction  in  wise  dealing, 

In  righteousness  and  justice  and  equity ; 

To  give  prudence  to  the  simple  [or  immature], 

To  the  young  man  knowledge  and  discretion : 

That  the  wise  man  may  hear,  and  increase  in  learning ; 

And  that  the  man  of  understanding  may  attain  unto  sound  counsels : 

To  understand  a  proverb,  and  a  figure  [or,  an  interpretation]. 

The  words  of  the  wise,  and  their  dark  sayings  [or  riddles]  (i,  2-6). 

All  this  reflects  its  practical  and  in  the  good  sense  worldly 
fiber.  It  was  indeed  the  primitive  gospel  of  success,  ex- 
pressed in  terms  of  this  world's  conditions  and  affairs,  and 
without  professing  to  be,  as  prophecy  avowed  itself,  a 
revelation  from  God. 

[94] 


AWAKING  OF  THE  LITERARY  SENSE 

In  its  devotion,  however,  to  the  principles  which  avail  in 
social  and  industrial  life,  Wisdom  never  cut  loose  from  or 
ignored  religion.  Its  beginning,  or  positive  principle,  was 
taken  as  the  fear  of  Jehovah,  or,  as  we  should  say,  reverence 
(Prov.  i,  7)  ;  its  principle  of  negation,  departing  from  evil 
(Job  xxviii,  28),  Thus  it  identified  Wisdom  values  squarely 
with  religious.  To  be  wise  was  the  same  as  to  be  righteous  ; 
to  be  wicked  was  to  be  a  fool.  The  unscrupulous  cleverness  or 
crookedness  which  grasps  at  immediate  success  is  a  delusion : 

There  is  a  way  which  seemeth  right  unto  a  man  ; 

But  the  end  thereof  are  the  ways  of  death  (Prov.  xiv,  12  ;  xvi,  25). 

The  wealth  that  one  gains  in  dishonest  ways  has  no  life 
value  ;   the  true  guaranty  of  life  is  righteousness  : 

Treasures  of  wickedness  profit  nothing ; 

But  righteousness  delivereth  from  death  (Prov.  x,  2). 

It  is  not  on  superficial  or  opportunist  motives  that  this  phi- 
losophy of  life  is  founded,  but  on  the  permanent  elements 
of  character ;  not  on  acuteness  of  intellect  alone  but  on 
loyalty  to  conscience  : 

There  are  many  devices  in  a  man's  heart ; 

But  the  counsel  of  Jehovah,  that  shall  stand  (Prov.  xix,  21). 

Through  this  practical  moralizing  on  the  active  principles  of 
life  it  came  about  that  the  ideal  of  righteousness,  of  strict 
loyalty  to  conscience,  was  ingrained  in  the  Hebrew  mind  as 
its  distinctive  bent.  We  distinguish  its  racial  genius  by  that ; 
just  as  beauty  and  clear  thinking  distinguished  the  Greeks, 
and  order  and  system  the  Romans.  The  Hebrew  education, 
as  this  body  of  the  proverb  literature  reveals,  was  an  educa- 
tion in  conscience  and  practical  good  sense. 

As  to  form,  the  utterances  of  Hebrew  Wisdom  do  not 
mind  the  distinctions  that  we  draw  between  proverbs,  par- 
ables, fables,  allegories,  apologues,  and  the  like.  All  are  alike 
mashals ;   all  use  in  some  way  the  principle  of  comparison 

[95] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

or  analogy;  and  the  term  "  mashal  "  covers  a  range  from 
the  most  condensed  maxim  to  a  flowing  and  continuous 
Wisdom  as  line  of  narrative,  hke  the  parables  of  Jesus.  The 
to  Form  element  common  to  them  is  their  didactic  purpose, 

and  their  elucidation  of  spiritual  truths  by  material  facts  and 
objects,  or,  as  in  the  antithetic  proverbs,  of  one  spiritual 
truth  by  another. 

The  main  distinction  of  the  Solomonic  mashals,  as  to 
form,  seems  to  be  that  they  are  detached  lessons,  not 
making  up  a  system  or  continuity  *but  each  complete  in 
itself ;  expressed  generally  in  the  couplet,  and  not  often 
extending  beyond  a  quatrain.  As  the  Wisdom  literature 
becomes  more  developed  and  mature,  however,  there  is  a 
tendency  to  make  the  lesson  longer,  more  flowing  and  more 
continuous  ;  in  other  words,  to  give  more  amplification  and 
elucidation  to  the  thought,  while  still  the  couplet  remains 
the  verse  unit.  It  is  thus  that  from  detached  counsels  on 
life  Wisdom  in  course  of  time  becomes  a  coordinated  phi- 
losophy. This  is  seen  especially  in  the  books  of  Job  and 
Ecclesiastes,  which  are  written  in  the  non-Solomonic  or  con- 
tinuous mashal.  How  this  differs  from  the  Solomonic  can 
be  seen  in  several  passages  outside  the  Book  of  Proverbs  ; 
for  example,  Balaam's  oracles  (Num.  xxiii,  xxiv)  ;  Job's 
discourses  (Job  xxvii,  xxix)  ;  and  two  of  the  Psalms 
(Psa.  xlix,  Ixxviii).  Isaiah  also  composed  a  passage  in  the 
later  mashal  form  (Isa.  xxviii,  23-29).  It  was  about  in  his 
time,  probably,  that  the  Wisdom  literature  was  in  greatest 
vogue  among  all  classes  of  the  people. 


[96] 


CHAPTER  III 

LOOKING  BEFORE  AND  AFTER 

[Under  the  early  kings  of  Judah  and  Israel,  until  cir.  783  B.C.] 

FROM  the  death  of  Solomon,  which  occurred  about 
940  B.C.,  to  the  so-called  literary  prophets,  about 
754  B.C.,  a  period  of  nearly  two  centuries,  the  people 
of  Israel  were  undergoing  politically  the  varying  fortunes 
of  the  two  rival  kingdoms  into  which  the  nation  split  as 
soon  as  Solomon's  son  Rehoboam  came  to  the  throne. 
The  immediate  occasion  of  the  disruption  was  ascribed  to 
Rehoboain's  insolent  determination  to  perpetuate  the  des- 
potic rule  of  his  father  (i  Kings  xii,  1-15)  ;  but  conditions 
were  ripe  for  it,  and  it  had  been  foreseen  and  sanctioned  by 
prophecy  while  Solomon  was  yet  alive  (i  Kings  xi,  26-40). 
This  political  separation  was  in  fact  only  the  culmination 
of  a  rivalry  which  had  from  early  times  existed  between 
southern  and  northern  Israel ;  a  rivalry  which  centered  in 
the  two  strongest  tribes,  Judah  and  Ephraim.  Each  of 
these  tribes  accordingly  became  the  nucleus  of  a  kingdom. 
The  kingdom  of  Judah,  or  the  southern  kingdom,  inherited 
the  capital  Jerusalem,  the  Temple  with  its  religious  traditions 
and  worship,  and  the  kingly  dynasty  from  the  heroic  times 
of  David.  The  kingdom  of  Ephraim,  or  the  northern  king- 
dom, was  set  up  anew,  with  a  capital  shifting  until  Omri 
built  Samaria ;  with  the  worship  not  centralized  at  the  capi- 
tal but  carried  on  at  various  high  places  or  local  shrines, 
of  which  Bethel  and  Dan  were  the  chief ;  and  with  the 
royal  dynasty  frequently  changed,  generally  by  usurpation 
and  assassination. 

[97] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Notes,  i.  The  Capitals  of  the  Northern  Kingdom.  Jeroboam, 
the  first  king  of  Israel,  chose  Shechem  (now  Nablous)  for  his  capital 
(I  Kings  xii,  25),  a  town  not  well  situated  for  fortification  or  defense. 
A  later  king,  Baasha,  who  came  to  the  kingdom  by  usurpation,  began 
to  build  Ramah  as  a  frontier  capital  against  Judah  (i  Kings  xv,  i  7),  but 
on  an  invasion  from  Syria  left  off  building  Ramah  and  dwelt  in  Tirzah 
(I  Kings  XV,  21).  This  continued  to  be  the  capital  until  Omri  built 
Samaria,  which  remained  the  capital  until  the  kingdom  was  broken  up 
(I  Kings  xvi,  24). 

2.  The  Centers  of  Worship.  Jeroboam,  on  coming  to  the  northern 
kingdom,  soon  perceived  that  it  would  not  do  to  let  his  people  go  up  to 
Jerusalem  for  pilgrimage  and  worship;  so  he  caused  images  to  be  made 
and  set  up  shrines  at  Bethel  and  Dan,  at  the  south  and  the  north  of 
his  kingdom,  and  also  established  centers  of  worship  at  other  places 
( I  Kings  xii,  28-3 1 ).  The  corruptions  of  worship  that  came  to  characterize 
these  places  are  denounced  in  Amos  iv,  4. 

Of  these  two  kingdoms  Judah,  retaining  only  two  of  the 
twelve  tribes  (i  Kings  xi,  36)  together  with  the  priestly 
tribe  of  Levi,  was  the  weaker  in  numbers  and  power,  but 
the  more  organized  and  stable,  retaining  its  autonomy  nearly 
3;  century  and  a  half  longer ;  its  religious  culture,  too,  being 
more  centralized,  was  moj'e  defined  and  homogeneous. 
Ephraim,  the  northern  kingdom,  taking  the  general  name 
of  the  kingdom  of  Israel,  and  comprising  ten  of  the  twelve 
tribes,  was  stronger  and  more  prosperous  in  wealth  and 
agriculture  and  trade,  having  in  fact  a  much  more  fertile 
and  attractive  territory ;  but  more  exposed  to  the  evils 
of  foreign  invasion,  in  closer  contact  with  the^  idolatrous 
Canaanites,  and  in  general  of  looser  moral  and  religious 
character. 

I.    One  People  in  Two  Kingdoms 

When,  after  the  secession  of  the  northern  tribes,  Reho- 
boam  was  minded  to  force  them  back  by  war,  the  word  of 
a  prophet  came  to  him  :  "  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  Ye  shall 
not  go  up,  nor  fight  against  your  brethren  the  children  of 
Israel :  return  every  man  to  his  house  ;  for  this  thing  is  of 

[98] 


LOOKING  BEFORE  AND  AFTER 

me"  (I  Kings  xii,  24).  A  similar  intimation  of  Jehovah's 
purpose  had  been  given  to  Jeroboam,  the  first  ruler  of  the 
northern  kingdom,  while  Solomon  was  yet  living  (i  Kings 
xi,  29-37).  The  political  separation  of  the  kingdoms  was 
evidently  of  Jehovah's  design  :  he  had  a  larger  mission  and 
destiny  for  the  Hebrew  race  than  men  could  plan  or  see. 
But  while  the  kingdoms  were  two  states,  often  in  rivalry 
and  war  with  each  other,  they  continued  to  be  one  people  : 
one  in  the  consciousness  of  ancestry  and  origin  ;  one  in 
tribal  afiiliation  ;  one  in  religion  and  sense  of  the  claims  of 
righteousness.  Their  disunion  was  in  fact  only  superficial, 
confined  to  matters  of  state  polity  and  perhaps  of  religious 
orthodoxy  ;  while  in  all  vital  things  they  had  not  only  the 
sense  of  brotherhood  but  of  communal  unlikeness  to  all  the 
nations  round  about  them.  On  this  homogeneous  character 
the  prophets  and  sages  could  reckon ;  to  it  they  could 
appeal  in  matters  of  history  and  motive  and  destiny. 


Traits  and  Tendencies  in  the  Two.  The  two  centuries 
from  the  literary  awakening  in  Solomon's  time  until  the 
literary  prophets  begin  their  work  may  be  regarded  as  a 
kind  of  melting-pot  era,  during  which  the  racial  and  reli- 
gious idea  is  fused  and  shaped  into  a  general  conscious- 
ness of  the  nation's  place  in  history  and  the  world.  The 
period  coincides  with  the  existence  of  the  two  kingdoms  as 
unviolated  states  ;  while  each  can  realize  its  national  idea 
and  character,  and  before  the  shadow  of  invasion  and  over- 
throw comes  upon  it  from  the  east.  During  this  time  the 
race's  character  and  conscience  are  forming.  The  two 
kingdoms  are  becoming  aware  of  the  claims  of  their  his- 
tory upon  them  :  their  ancestral  faith,  their  peculiar  herit- 
age of  ideas,  their  noble  roll  of  patriarchs  and  leaders,  their 
God  Jehovah  and  his  intimate  relations  with  them.  All  this 
is  fostered  by  unnamed  men  of  leading  among  them,  sages 

[99] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

and  teachers,  whose  work  appears  in  the  historical  books 
from  Genesis  to  Kings,  Their  Hterary  activity  during  this 
period  is  thus  in  the  way  of  racial  and  religious  self- 
interpretation  ;  running  back  to  times  far  beyond  the  be- 
ginnings of  their  political  history,  and  down  to  spiritual 
depths  beyond  the  reach  of  time  and  custom. 

When  therefore  toward  the  end  of  Israel's  monarchical 
period  the  literary  prophets  began  their  work,  they  could 
appeal  to  a  familiar  fund  of  historical  knowledge  on  the 
part  of  the  people.  The  people's  native  aptitude  for  the 
parable  and  the  folk  tale  had  been  well  educated.  They 
had  come  to  know  their  history  with  its  meanings  so  well 
that  it  could  be  relied  upon  as  an  incitement  to  conscience 
and  a  motive  power  in  conduct. 

Note.  The  prophets  are  full  of  allusions  to  events  of  early  history, 
not  only  the  great  outstanding  events  but  the  smaller  ones,  as  well 
known ;  showing  that  the  people  had  been  well  instructed.  One  may 
instance,  almost  at  random,  Amos's  reference  to  the  conquest  of  the 
Amorites  made  by  Joshua,  Amos  ii-,  9  (cf.  Josh,  x,  12);  Hosea's  refer- 
ence to  the  destroyed  cities  Admah  and  Zeboiim,  Hos.  xi,  8  (cf.  Gen.  xiv, 
8);  Micah's  reference  to  Balaam,  Mic.  vi,  5  (cf.  Num.  xxii-xxiv);  Isaiah's 
reference  to  campaigns  by  David  and  Joshua,  Isa.  xxviii,  21  (cf.  2  Sam. 
V,  20 ;  Josh.  X,  12). 

To  this  self-interpretation  b6th  kingdoms  had  contrib- 
uted ;  and  the  resulting  historical  literature  is  a  composite 
product.  It  is  of  some  importance  therefore  to  note  how 
each  of  the  two  sections  of  Palestine  was  adapted  to  con- 
tribute its  distinctive  strain. 

Of  the  two  rival  kingdoms  thus  existing  in  close  connec- 
tion, the  northern  one,  the  kingdom  of  Israel,  was  in  all 
The  North-  worldly  respects  the  stronger.  It  comprised  all 
em  Kingdom  ^\^q  more  fertile  and  populous  parts  of  Palestine  : 
the  country  around  Shechem  and  Samaria,  the  fertile  plain 
of  Jezreel  or  Esdraelon,  the  region  around  the  Sea  of 
Galilee   and   northward,   and   the    fine    agricultural    plateau 

[100] 


LOOKING  BEFORE  AND  AFTER 

of  Gilead  beyond  the  Jordan.  The  people's  pursuits  were 
mainly  agricultural ;  and  the  common  folk  life  was  that 
of  contented  and  prosperous  farmers.  All  this  tended  to 
produce  a  sturdy  and  sterling  type  of  civilization,  but  not 
a  very  high  standard  of  religious  culture. 

There  were  other  conditions,  however,  not  so  favorable 
to  the  homogeneous  life  thus  connoted.  The  northern 
kingdom  was  in  immediate  contact  with  the  neighbor  king- 
doms of  Syria  and  Phoenicia  ;  with  which  realms  it  was  in 
constant  relations  of  war  or  intimate  alliance.  It  was  thus 
more  in  the  current  of  the  world's  civilization,  and  tending 
to  conform  itself  to  the  world's  standards  of  worship  and 
polity.  The  great  caravan  routes,  too,  between  the  two  cen- 
ters of  empire  Egypt  and  Assyria,  passing  through  the 
midst  of  Israel,  brought  the  chances  of  trade  to  their  doors, 
and  furnished  scope  to  the  native  Hebrew  genius  for 
business.  All  this,  while  it  increased  the  nation's  wealth, 
tended  to  produce  luxury  and  arrogance,  and  those  distinc- 
tions of  classes  wherein  the  rich  could  tyrannize  over  the 
poor  and  reduce  them  to  virtual  slavery  ;  a  condition  which 
the  frequent  disastrous  wars  aggravated.  As  is  always  the 
case,  the  higher  civilization,  along  with  its  blessings,  brought 
also  its  evils  and  vices  ;  and  with  these  the  nation's  men  of 
letters  must  reckon. 

The  weaker  kingdom  of  Judah,  occupying  the  rugged 
hill-country  from  a  few  miles  north  of  Jerusalem  southward 
The  Southern  to  Hebron  and  Beersheba,  the  slopes  of  the  foot- 
Kingdom  hills  westward  toward  the  Plain  of  Sharon  and 
the  Philistine  country,  and  the  wilderness  eastward  toward 
Jericho,  Jordan,  and  the  Dead  Sea,  had  a  land  that  could 
be  made  productive  only  by  constant  and  wisely  directed 
toil ;  a  land  fitted  mostly  for  the  cultivation  of  the  grape 
and  the  olive,  and  for  the  care  of  flocks.  Thus  the  type  of 
its  civilization,  apart  from  the  capital,  was  rather  pastoral 
than  agricultural.    Life  was  lived  on  a  smaller  and  simpler 

[lOl] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

scale  than  in  the  northern  kingdom.  Society,  however,  was 
more  homogeneous,  the  fiber  of  the  people's  mind  more 
narrow  and  intense,  the  national  character  more  tenacious 
and  hardy.  Their  hill-country  was  in  a  sense  their  protec- 
tion from  the  agitations  of  the  outer  world.  It  was  not  so 
accessible  nor  so  much  coveted  by  enemies  ;  and  as  long  as 
the  northern  kingdom  survived,  Judah  had  this  as  a  kind 
of  buffer  state  between  it  and  the  great  invading  kingdoms. 

II 

Resultant  Literary  Situation.  The  literary  awaking 
under  Solomon,  with  the  immediate  impulse  it  gave  to  the 
cultivation  of  poetry  and  proverb,  was  not  confined  to  these 
lines  of  literary  culture.  It  was  felt  in  every  activity,  and 
not  least  in  the  form  which  would  make  use  of  the  native 
genius  for  narration,  namely,  the  historical.  It  is  to  the 
ages  while  the  two  kingdoms  existed  side  by  side  —  more 
specifically  the  ninth  century  B.C.  —  that  we  trace  the 
transition  from  folk  tales  of  heroism  and  adventure  to 
motived  and  prophetic  history,  such  as  we  now  read  in 
Genesis  to  Joshua.  For  this  the  times,  with  their  great 
personal  achievements  so  recent,  furnished  a  positive  inspi- 
ration. In  the  nation's  evident  guidance  under  Jehovah 
the  men  of  insight  felt  that  it  had  both  a  history  and  a 
hope  worth  recounting  and  cherishing.  The  two  kingdoms 
were  alike  in  this.  With  the  same  ancestry,  the  same  God, 
and  the  same  moral  consciousness,  they  continued  to  think 
alike  on  all  essential  things ;  and  law,  wisdom,  and  prophecy 
would  be  equally  valid  and  binding  for  both. 

In  the  tone  and  standard  of  religious  culture,  however, 
there  were  differences  between  the  two  kingdoms ;  whose. 
Lines  of  effects  we  shall  see  in  the  utterances  of  the 
Cleavage  literary  prophets,  but  which  may  be  felt  also  in 
the  composite  historical  literature  tracing  its  component 
elements  to  this  period. 

[102  ] 


LOOKING  BEFORE  AND  AFTER 

The  southern  kingdom,  Judah,  was  the  natural  leader 
and  pace  setter  in  religious  ideals.  It  had  the  city  which 
David  had  made  the  metropolis  of  all  Israel ;  it  had  the 
Temple  which  Solomon  had  built,  with  the  ancient  ark  of 
the  covenant,  and  the  organized  priesthood  and  worship  ; 
it  had  the  royal  dynasty  of  the  Davidic  -house,  on  which 
had  been  pronounced  the  blessing  and  promise  of  Jehovah. 
It  was  in  Judah,  accordingly,  that  the  racial  and  religious 
idea  was  evolved  in  greatest  unity  and  purity ;  in  Judah 
that  it  would  tend  more  to  crystallize  into  the  permanence 
and  authority  of  a  matured  literature.  At  the  same  time, 
if  Judah  had  a  purer  type  of  religious  culture,  it  was  apt 
to  be  more  intense  and  narrow,  and  so  more  intolerant 
and  exclusive.  Its  influence  would  make  rather  for  literary 
depth  than  breadth. 

The  religion  of  the  northern  kingdom,  Israel,  was  of  a 
looser  and  more  liberal  type  :  less  resolved  to  prescriptive 
tenets  ;  more  open  to  the  influence  of  heathen  idolatries, 
especially  from  the  allied  kingdom  of  Phoenicia,  and  to  the 
moral  corruptions  inherent  in  the  Canaanite  nature  worship 
with  which  the  people  were  in  immediate  contact.  At  the 
same  time  it  was  more  tolerant  and  broad  in  its  sympa- 
thies, less  austere  and  exacting ;  it  doubtless  learned  good 
as  well  as  evil  from  its  neighbor  religions.  Religion  in 
Israel  was  much  more  primitive  than  in  Judah.  Its  stand- 
ards of  law  and  worship  were  less  defined.  Even  as  late 
as  the  time  of  Elijah  it  had  to  decide  between  the  claims 
of  Jehovah  and  Baal  (i  Kings  xviii,  21);  and  even  to 
Elijah  the  idea  that  God  would  communicate  with  man  by 
an  audible  voice  instead  of  by  some  portent  of  nature  was 
a  discovery  (i  Kings  xix,  11-13).  All  this  left  the  nation's 
character  less  deeply  guarded  against  corrupting  and  de- 
basing influences ;  and  the  national  disintegration  came 
earlier  and  more  easily  than  in  the  kingdom  of  Judah. 

With  this  literary  situation  in  mind,  we  are  now  to  trace 

[103] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

the  rise  of  the  historical  writing,  and  along  with  it  the 
prophetic  activity  of  the  two  centuries  preceding  the  work 
of  the  literary  prophets.  This  is  what  is  meant  by  the 
heading  of  our  chapter  :  Looking  Before  and  After. 

n.    Looking  Before  —  Beginnings  of  Historical 
Writing 

We  have  already  noted  the  fragments  and  remainders  of 
primitive  literature  embedded  in  the  first  eight  books  of  the 
Bible  :  pieces  and  passages  from  which  we  have  deduced 
the  native  literary  forms.  Among  these  latter  was  reckoned 
the  folk  story  ;  which,  copiously  represented  in  the  com- 
pleted history,  doubtless  preserves  much  that  was  nearly 
contemporary  with  the  events  it  narrates.^  We  now  take 
up  the  question  of  the  history  itself :  not  yet  with  refer- 
ence to  its  complete  and  fully  articulated  form,  but  more 
especially  to  note  the  order  and  stages  in  which  it  seems 
to  have  been  written,  and  some  things  about  the  resultant 
character  of  it. 


Order  of  Historical  Composition.  The  order  in  which 
the  events  of  history  were  compiled  and  written  does  not 
correspond  with  the  order  in  which  they  took  place.  It  is 
more  nearly  the  reverse.  The  earliest  events,  especially 
of  primitive  and  prehistoric  times,  might  well  have  been 
among  the  latest  recounted.  The  selection  and  interpre- 
tation of  them  implies  a  maturity  of  historical  reflection, 
which  connotes  an  established  and  enlightened  stage  of 
society.  The  process  of  finding  this  order  of  composition 
is  like  tracing  the  history  back,  step  by  step,  to  its  under- 
lying causes  and  motives  ;  which  factors  can  only  be  under- 
stood as  the  effects  have  developed  to  a  riper  degree  of 
religion  and  civilization. 

1  See  above,  p.  70. 
[■04] 


LOOKING  BEFORE  AND  AFTER 

We  will  trace  this  order  of  historical  composition  in 
three  stages. 

Historical  writing  in  this  period  would  naturally  begin 
with  the  events  that  were  most  vivid  and  stirring  in  the 
people's  mind,  and  with  the  great  personalities 
Events  Near-  through  whom  the  nation  had  reached  distinc- 
estatHand  ^.j^^^  These  events  would  belong  to  the  times 
of  Solomon  and  David  and  Saul,  the  three  great  leaders  of 
the  united  kingdom.  In  all  the  stories  relating  to  these, 
and  especially  in  those  relating  to  David,  there  is  a  zest 
and  freshness  of  treatment,  an  intimacy  of  human  feeling, 
a  sense  of  the  moving  elements  of  personality,  which  be- 
token that  the  history  was  written  while  the  memory  of 
these  great  men  was  still  an  inspiring  and  molding  power 
in  the  nation.  We  have  seen  how  this  personal  influence 
and  inwardness  are  reflected  in  the  Davidic  Psalms  ;  ^  in 
the  annals  that  make  up  a  large  part  of  i  Samuel  and 
all  of  2  Samuel  it  is  still  more  so.  The  substance  of  the 
account  is  too  near  its  events  to  have  become  staled  with 
age  or  literary  formalism. 

It  is  in  connection  with  the  reign  of  David  that  the 
Chronicler,  who  in  a  later  century  wrote  an  ecclesiastical 
history  of  Judah,  begins  to  name  the  persons  who  wrote 
the  annals  from  which  he  derived  his  facts.  As  authori- 
ties for  this  period  (i  Chron.  xxix,  29)  he  names  Samuel 
the  seer,  Nathan  the  prophet,  and  Gad  the  seer.  Samuel 
could  not  have  contributed  much  to  the  biography  of  David, 
for  he  died  while  David  was  an  outlaw  fleeing  from  the 
fury  of  King  Saul  (i  Sam.  xxv,  i)  ;  but  for  the  life  of 
Saul,  and  for  the  obscure  period  between  the  Judges  and 
the  Kings,  Samuel  might  well  have  been  a  principal  author- 
ity. It  would  seem,  then,  that  these  stories  of  the  early  and 
united  kingdom  drew  least  from  floating  tradition  ;  nor  did 
they,  like  the  history  of  the  reigns  succeeding  Solomon's, 

^  See  above,  p.  82. 
[105] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

base  themselves  on  court  and  temple  archives.  Their  source 
was  personal  reminiscence  and  interpretation,  by  men  en- 
dowed with  prophetic  insight.  For  the  annals  of  Solomon's 
reign  there  is  a  curious  blending  of  historical  styles,  indicat- 
ing, to  my  mind,  the  somewhat  unpracticed  historian.  We 
have  noted,  on  the  one  hand,  the  tone  of  childlike  wonder 
in  which  the  wisdom  and  wealth  and  splendor  of  Solomon 
are  described  ;  ^  on  the  other,  we  note  such  a  tendency  to 
accumulate  details  and  statistics  of  affairs  of  administration 
and  building  and  trade  as  one  sees  on  the  inscribed  monu- 
ments of  the  Assyrian  and  Chaldean  monarchs.  It  is  like 
a  combination  of  earlier  and  later  historical  methods  ;  when 
dependence  on  oral  and  folk  tradition  is  passing  into  depend- 
ence on  documentary  sources,  and  when  the  ascendancy  of 
the  personal  is  passing. 

Going  back  along  the  stream  of  time,  the  next  histories 
to  be  compiled  would  be  the  stories  of  the  Judges,  and  of 
Th   A  e     ^^^^  times  of  hardship  and  heroism  during  which 
of  the  Tribal   the  tribes  were  gaining  a  foothold  in  the  land, 
^^°^^  becoming  united  in  sentiment  and  worship,  and 

advancing  from  anarchy  to  a  degree  of  comity  and  tribal 
organization.  In  these  histories  the  compilers  would  avail 
themselves  of  the  folk  tales  that  had  gathered  round  the 
tribal  heroes  of  old,  and  of  legends  that  had  accumulated 
at  the  local  sanctuaries  and  sacred  places.  It  was  in  these 
histories  too,  as  we  have  seen,  that  fragments  of  ancient 
song  and  parable  .  were  incorporated  as  part  of  the  his- 
torian's material.  They  go  back  to  the  times  of  the  de- 
liverance from  Egypt ;  though  in  the  earlier  periods,  as 
comprised  in  the  books  of  Exodus  and  Numbers,  the  folk 
element  shades  off  into  a  somewhat  more  legendary  strain, 
of  which  we  shall  have  later  occasion  to  speak. 

The  personal  character  portrayed  in  these  histories  of  the 
Judges  is   such  as   is   natural   to  a   rude    state  of  society. 

^  See  above,  p.  79. 
[106] 


LOOKING  BEFORE  AND  AFTER 

It  is  character  actuated  by  simple  motives  and  passions ; 
and  in  religion  cherishing  very  primitive  notions  of  service 
and  worship.  No  attempt  is  made  to  set  up  these  heroes 
as  models,  or  to  extenuate  their  faults.  Most  of  the  stories 
come  from  the  central  and  northern  tribes,  who  in  their 
pioneer  state  were  in  close  contact  with  the  more  settled 
and  prosperous  Canaanites.  Their  chief  danger  lay  in  the 
tendency  to  absorb  heathen  customs,  and  to  lose  the  severer 
moral  tone  of  the  service  of  Jehovah.  Their  hope  of  sur- 
vival and  distinction  as  a  race  lay  in  their  maintaining  their 
covenant  with  Jehovah  and  being  true  to  their  heritage 
of  ideas.  All  this  is  faithfully  portrayed  in  the  Book  of 
Judges,  the  memorial  of  the  rugged  times  before  there 
was  a  king  in  Israel,  when,  as  the  account  says,  "  every 
man  did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes "  (Judg. 
xvii,  6  ;  xxi,  25). 

The  staple  of  these  stories  of  the  Judges  consists  of 
tribal  and  family  traditions,  such  stories  as  would  be 
preserved  for  their  heroic  interest.  Being  of  the  type 
of  folk  tale,  they  retain  to  a  high  degree  the  coloring 
of  contemporary  accounts  ;  though  to  the  oral  transmission 
a  process  of  pruning  and  polishing  supervened  until  they 
reached  a  stereotyped  form  suitable  to  be  carried  in  memory. 
When  the  historians  of  our  age  found  them,  they  added 
little  if  any  literary  shaping ;  they  merely  arranged  them 
according  to  their  ideas  of  chronology,  and  supplied  a 
framework  of  causes  and  motives.  This  framework  is 
a  naive  and  primitive  formula  of  historic  philosophy  :  given 
in  the  simple  recurring  statement  that  the  Israelites  did 
evil  in  the  sight  of  Jehovah  and  were  oppressed  ;  and  that 
when  they  cried  to  him  he  raised  up  champions  who  de- 
livered them.  The  early  chapters  (i-iii)  are  predominantly 
of  this  epitome  type.  Then,  for  the  body  of  the  book, 
follow  stories  of  the  greater  champions,  —  Barak,  Gideon, 
Jephthah,   Samson, — told  not  so  much  with  reference  to 

[107] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

strict  time  succession  as  with  reference  to  different  sections 
and  tribes.  Hence  it  is  difficult  to  construct  from  them 
a  continuous  history.  The  last  four  chapters  are  a  kind 
of  appendix  giving  two  episodes  of  the  days  of  anarchy. 
One  relates  the  establishment  of  a  sanctuary  at  Dan  in 
the  extreme  north  of  Israel  (xvii,  xviii).  The  other  gives 
the  story  of  a  certain  outrage  and  feud  which  resulted  in 
almost  the  entire  extinction  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  and 
the  device,  similar  to  the  Roman  rape  of  the  Sabines,  by 
which  they  were  enabled  to  reinstate  themselves  (xix-xxi). 

The  first  fiv^e  books  of  the  Bible,  called  the  Pentateuch, 
or  Five   Books  of  Moses,  lie  before  us  as  a  virtually  con- 

Bef  re  the  ^'^''^i^'^s  story  ;  giving  an  account  of  the  creation 
Occupation  of  the  world  and  of  man,  of  the  origin  and 
0  anaan  distribution  of  the  various  races  of  men  ;  then, 
beginning  with  Abraham,  of  the  Hebrew  race  down  to  the 
death  of  Moses.  To  this  modern  scholars  add  as  a  kind 
of  appendix  the  Book  of  Joshua,  calling  the  whole  the 
Hexateuch  —  this,  however,  for  purposes  rather  of  docu- 
mentary criticism  than  of  literature. 

The  story  of  these  primitive  times,  legendary  passing 
gradually  into  historic,  is  told  with  the  skill  and  moving 
interest  of  a  people  with  a  native  genius  for  narrative,  but 
also  with  the  didactic  feeling  of  a  people  to  whom  religion 
is  the  chief  concern  of  life.  It  is  in  this  way  that  the 
coloring  and  motivation  of  this  primeval  history  differs  from 
the  heroic  tales  of  the  Judges  and  the  personal  portrayal  of 
the  Kings.  It  has  a  strain  of  deeper  and  more  developed 
religious  values  ;  as  if  the  stories  were  told  not  so  much  to 
give  an  account  of  primeval  customs  and  family  origins  as 
to  make  an  interpretation  of  the  spiritual  development  of 
man.  Accordingly  there  is  no  book  of  the  Bible  that  has  a 
richer  religious  and  philosophical  import  even  for  modern 
thinking ;  though  of  course  this  is  wrapped  in  a  highly 
symbolic  form.    This   feature  of  it  becomes  more  marked 

[loS] 


LOOKING  BEFORE  AND  AFTER 

as  we  get  back  toward  the  beginning  of  things  :  the  stories 
of  Eden,  and  Cain  and  Abel,  and  the  Flood,  and  the  Tower 
of  Babel,  are  like  an  exposition  by  narrative  of  the  native 
spirit  of  manhood.  The  stories  of  the  Hebrew  patriarchs, 
succeeding  these,  are  perfectly  individualized  portrayals, 
and  yet  there  is  much  of  the  type  about  them,  as  if  they 
were  intended  to  give  the  various  attributes  of  the  com- 
posite character  as  it  develops  from  the  family  and  re- 
ligious unit  in  Abraham.^ 

Into  the  Pentateuch  story  as  it  goes  along  is  incorporated 
much  of  a  statistical  nature.  P'or  the  history  of  the  patri- 
archal times  this  deals  with  matters  of  family  and  race, 
in  the  form  of  genealogies  and  names  connected  with  race 
distribution ;  in  the  Exodus  and  wilderness  history,  with 
the  organization  of  the  tribes,  details  of  the  tabernacle, 
itineraries,  and  the  like.  When  the  story  comes  to  the 
giving  of  the  law  by  Moses,  not  only  is  the  account  of  it 
narrated,  but  the  whole  code  of  laws  is  appended,  in 
several  different  collections,  giving  the  impression  of  dif- 
ferent strata  of  legislative  development.  Besides  these 
collections,  in  the  fifth  book  (Deuteronomy)  much  of  the 
law  is  repeated  in  the  form  of  public  discourses  purporting 
to  have  been  given  to  the  people  by  Moses  just  before 
his  death. 

II 

Two  Main  Lines  of  Source  Story.  It  was  long  held  that 
this  Pentateuchal  history  was  written  by  Moses,  and  that  it 
was  the  oldest  literature  in  the  Bible.  As  soon  as  a  more 
critical  judgment  is  applied,  however,  it  is  seen  that  the 
history  could  have  assumed  its  present  form  and  maturity 
of  interpretation  only  after  Israel  had  reached  a  much  more 
advanced  condition  of  culture  and  civilization  than  they 
could  have  had  in  the  primitive  nomadic  stage  of  Moses' 

1  See  "The  Genius  of  a  Race,"  pp.  31  ii.  above. 
[  109] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

leadership.  The  history  is  in  fact  composite  ;  its  compo- 
nent elements  reflecting  differences  of  coloring  due  to 
different  ages,  and  to  the  traditions  and  thought-habits  of 
different  sections  of  the  country. 

It  was  not  until  after  the  Chaldean  exile  that  the  Penta- 
teuch was  completed  in  its  present  inclusion  and  order. 
Of  its  component  elements  there  were  four  main  lines, 
which  we  will  here  enumerate :  the  Jehovistic  (J)  ;  the 
Elohistic  (E)  ;  the  Deuteronomic  (D)  ;  and  the  Priestly  (P). 
These  lines,  with  some  intermediate  editing,  were  skillfully 
combined  by  the  latest  historians, ,  so  as  to  form  in  the 
main  a  continuous  narrative.  The  latter  two  will  come  up 
for  mention  in  their  place  ;  we  have  to  deal  here  merely 
with  the  first  and  second,  originating  in  the  early  part  of 
the  monarchical  period  now  under  consideration,  and  con- 
taining the  most  vigorous  and  moving  elements  of  the 
early  history. 

The  oldest  stratum  of  story,  and  the  one  that  has  been 
used  for  the  narrative  basis  of  the  whole  patriarchal  history, 
Thejeho-  is  the  so-callcd  Jehovistic  (Yahvistic)  ;  which 
vistic  Source  embodies,  as  is  generally  supposed,  the  tradi- 
tions current  in  the  southern  kingdom.  It  seems  to  have 
come  from  about  the  time  of  King  Jehoshaphat,  874  to 
849  B.C.  Containing,  as  a  rule,  the  most  charming  and 
limpidly  told  of  the  early  stories,  it  has  the  flow  and  real- 
istic vigor  of  the  native  folk  tale,  and  doubtless  derives 
largely  from  a  still  earlier  oral  source.  The  depth  of  its 
spiritual  involvement,  however,  forbids  our  attributing  it  to 
a  purely  folk's  origin.  It  must  have  come  from  cultivated 
teachers,  who,  though  speaking  in  plain  and  as  it  were 
domestic  terms,  had  a  deep  intuitional  sense  of  human  and 
divine  values.  The  best  account  of  the  matter  is  that  these 
J  stories  were  composed  for  the  catechetical  instruction  of 
the  common  people  and  the  young.  In  their  inception 
they  were  educational.    The  Israelites,  as  we  know,  attached 

[no] 


LOOKING  BEFORE  AND  AFTER 

great  importance  to  instruction  of  this  kind.  They  were 
eager  that  all,  from  the  humblest  up,  might  be  familiar 
with  the  knowledge  of  Jehovah  and  of  the  great  names 
and  events  of  the  past  (cf.  Exod.  xii,  26,  27;  xiii,  14; 
Deut.  vi,  6-9;  Josh,  iv,  21). 

Though  oldest  in  point  of  composition,  the  Jehovistic  line 
of  story  does  not  begin  until  Genesis  ii,  4,  where  the 
detailed  account  of  the  creation  of  man  begins  ;  the  first 
chapter,  from  the  later  priestly  source,  dealing  with  the 
six  days  of  the  creation  of  the  world.  For  two  chapters, 
in  designating  Deity,  it  unites  the  two  names  Jehovah  and 
Elohim  (Authorized  Version,  LoRr3  God)  in  one ;  after  that 
the  simple  name  "Jehovah"  is  used,  though  not  rigor- 
ously. Thus  in  this  Jehovistic  source  he  is  recognized  as 
from  the  beginning  the  one  God  of  mankind  and  first 
worshiped  in  the  time  of  Adam's  third  son  Seth  (Gen,  iv, 
26) ;  though  according  to  the  Elohistic  account  the  name 
"Jehovah"  was  not  known  to  Israel  until  the  time  of  the 
deliverance  from  Egypt  (Exod.  vi,  2,  3).  With  the  pre- 
dominant use  of  this  name  goes  a  very  intimate  conception 
of  the  relations  of  Jehovah  with  me/i.  He  is  represented 
as  walking  with  them,  talking  face  to  face  with  them, 
eating  and  lodging  with  them  ;  and  his  acts,  as  connected 
with  the  creation,  the  flood,  the  confusion  of  tongues,  the 
destruction  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  are  planned  and 
carried  out  in  very  human  ways.  Thus  the  stories  seem 
to  reflect  the  artless  conceptions  of  early  conditions,  as 
these  had  gradually  shaped  themselves  by  oral  repetition 
into  stereotyped  narrative  forms.  It  is  an  indication  of  the 
later  historians'  fidelity  to  their  sources,  that  these  stories 
retain  so  much  of  their  primitive  character,  though  at  the 
time  when  the  history  was  compiled  and  unified  the  idea 
of  God  had  grown  so  much  more  austere  and  remote. 

As  there  was  a  line  of  story  in  the  southern  kingdom, 
so  in  the  northern  ;  and  this  was  drawn  upon  by  the  later 

[III] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

compilers  and  worked  in  as  a  strand  in  the  completed  his- 
tory. It  is  called  Elohistic,  from  Elohim,  the  older  and  more 
TheEiohistic  general  name  of  the  Deity  common  to  all  the 
Source  Semitic  stock,  to  which  name  this  line  of  story 

tended.  It  embodies  traditions  of  the  northern  kingdom,  as 
written  supposedly  about  the  time  of  Elisha,  or  somewhere 
from  850  to  800  B.C.  In  the  completed  history  this  line  of 
story  is  not  drawn  upon  so  continuously,  but  rather  to  fill 
out  and  supplement  the  Jehovistic  ;  this  probably  because 
the  two  lines  of  story  contained  mostly  identical  traditions. 
The  Elohistic  line,  which  like  the  other  derives  from  folk 
tradition,  reflects  a  somewhat  different  coloring  of  religious 
thought ;  not,  however,  discordant  in  principle.  Its  idea  of 
God  is  less  intimate,  as  befits  a  less  personal  concept  of 
him  ;  he  is  represented  not  as  friend  and  companion  but  as 
a  Being  whom  men  could  apprehend  only  through  angels 
and  dreams  and  oracles.  Beginning  at  Genesis  xii,  it  com- 
prises material  from  no  farther  back  than  the  common 
ancestor  Abraham  ;  and  from  the  time  of  Jacob  it  deals 
especially  with  the  history  of  the  northern  tribes,  giving  its 
honors  to  those  lines ^of  ancestry  rather  than  to  the  Judaic. 
The  less  intimate  sense  of  Deity  which  characterizes  the 
Elohistic  story,  and  which  we  feel  in  the  habitual  use  of 
the  less  personal  name,  may  be  due  to  the  fact  that  its  idea 
of  God  starts  from  natural  forces  rather  than  from  human 
experience.  With  these  two  slightly  different  angles  of 
view,  it  can  be  seen  that  the  interweaving  of  Elohistic  and 
Jehovistic  elements  enriches  rather  than  distorts  the  united 
history.  It  gives  solidity  and  contour,  like  the  superimposed 
pictures  of  a  stereoscopic  view. 

Note.  The  Two  Sources.  The  following  brief  characterization  of 
the  J  and  E  documents  is  quoted  from  Professor  Alexander  R.  Gordon, 
in  11  ihbert  Journal.,  Vol.  IV,  p.  164: 

The  Jehovistic  Source:  "  It  is  to  this  (^OQ.wm&x\\..,  par  excelleiiic.  that 
the  Book  of  Genesis  owes  its  peculiar  charm.    It  is  distinguished  for  its 

[,.2] 


LOOKING  BEFORE  AND  AFTER     . 

delicate  style  and  easy  rhythmical  flow  of  language,  but  above  all  for 
its  delineation  of  character,  and  its  insight  into,  and  power  of  express- 
ing, subtle  shades  of  feeling  and  motives  of  conduct.  It  is  also  suffused 
throughout  with  a  simple,  fresh,  and  spontaneous  religious  spirit.  Jah- 
veh  is  near  to  man.  He  comes  down  and  walks  and  talks  with  him  — 
almost  like  a  brother-man.  And  the  religious  life  consists  essentially  in 
the  free,  happy,  almost  visible  walk  of  man  with  Jahveh." 

The  Elohistic  Source :  "  This  document,  while  still  popular  in  spirit, 
is  rather  more  stiff  and  formal  in  style.  The  language  shows  a  distinct 
tendency  to  crystallize  into  literary  forms,  or  mannerisms.  The  religious 
tone,  too,  is  more  reserved.  We  have  no  longer  the  free,  happy  walk 
of  Jahveh  with  man.  God  dwells  in  some  measure  apart  from  men,  and 
reveals  himself,  not  by  open  word,  but  in  dreams  and  by  His  angel." 


Ill 

How  these  were  Supplemented.  The  data  derived  from 
another  source,  the  so-called  Priestly,  though  interpolated 
much  later,  may  be  considered  here  for  the  distinctive  tone 
and  coloring  they  impart  to  the  text.  It  is  in  the  contri- 
butions from  this  source  that  we  feel  the  formal  touch  of 
the  historian,  as  he  thinks  in  terms  of  written  and  documen- 
tary records,  as  distinguished  from  the  folk's  consciousness 
thinking  in  terms  of  spoken  and  literary  utterance. 

The  material  of  this  source  represents  rather  the  literature 
composed  for  permanence  and  record  than  that  composed 
for  common  use  and  dissemination  ;  it  is  the  original  idea 
of  the  written  as  distinguished  from  the  spoken  style. ^ 
Composed  under  clerical  and  scribal  auspices  from  the  civic 
and  Temple  archives,  it  comprises  a  supplementary  line  of 
data  designed  to  supply  the  chronological  and  genealogical 
backbone  of  the  history ;  to  give  statistics,  formal  details, 
measurements,  and  the  like  ;  and  to  incorporate  the  statutes, 
civic,  sanitary,  and  ritual,  which  had  to  do  with  the  various 
usages,  festival  and  liturgical,  of  the  sanctuary.  Its  most  dis- 
tinctive legal  section  is  comprised  in  the  Book  of  Leviticus, 

1  See  above,  p.  14. 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATrRE 

which  in  its  present  form  embodies  the  ecclesiastical  code 
as  observed  in  the  second  Temple.  It  reflects  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  priests  and  clergy  to  whom  the  religion  has 
long  been  an  established  and  organic  system,  and  at  a  time 
when  the  nation,  no  longer  independent  as  a  state,  had  only 
the  religious  outlet  for  its  thoughts  and  activities. 

Its  thought  of  God  is  of  a  Being  high  and  withdrawn 
from  men,  whose  face  none  can  see  and  live,  and  inter- 
course with  whom  is  only  by  rites  and  forms.  He  is  the 
God  of  creation  and  nature  and  history,  rather  than  of  the 
personal  human  experience ;  hence  the  comparative  remote- 
ness and  austerity  of  the  character  ascribed  to  him.  The 
general  name  "Elohim"  is  used  to  designate  him,  until 
the  history  reaches  the  time  of  the  deliverance  from  Egypt 
(see  Exod.  vi,  2,  3),  when  the  distinctive  national  name 
"Jehovah"  takes  its  place.  The  more  formal  and  docu- 
mentar}^  coloring  of  this  source  makes  it  comparatively 
easy  to  distinguish  from  the  more  flowing  narrative  of  the 
rest.  Whether  anv  of  it  is  earlier  than  the  Chaldean  exile 
is  a  matter  of  dispute  ;  but  at  any  rate  its  legal  parts,  as 
represented  in  the  Book  of  Leviticus,  are  thought  to  be  in 
their  present  form  the  work  of  Ezra  the  scribe,  who  came 
from  Babylon  to  publish  the  law  to  the  returned  exiles  at 
Jerusalem,  in  458  b.c.  (see  Neh.  viii,  1-3). 

Note.  The  Jehovistic  (Jahvistiq  narrative,  as  represented  in  the 
first  eleven  chapters  of  Genesis,  is  given  by  itself,  detached  from  the 
Priestly,  in  Gordon,  "  Early  Traditions  of  Genesis,"  pp.  233-241  ;  and 
is  followed  by  a  secondary  Jehovistic  element  (J  -),  pp.  242-245.  The 
Priestly  document  is  detached  and  given,  in  its  turn,  pp.  245-255. 

Treatment  of  Myth  and  Legend.  The  modern  way  of 
getting  at  the  origins  of  things  is  by  study  of  the  evidence 
furnished  by  geology,  physical  geography,  climatolog}',  and 
archaeological  remains  ;  and  of  man,  by  ethnological  study 


LOOKING  BEFORE  AND  AFTER 

of  primitive  customs  as  these  exist  in  rude  and  uncivilized 
tribes  to-day.  The  Bibhcal  way  is  by  taking  the  dim  tradi- 
tions that  have  floated  down  by  race  memory  from  unknown 
times  and  interpreting  these  according  to  the  historian's 
sense  of  human  and  divine  nature.  There  are  race  mem- 
ories as  well  as  individual ;  and  the  things  that  these  race 
memories  perpetuate  correspond  to  the  stage  of  maturity 
which  the  people  have  reached  when  the  impression  is 
definite  enough  to  assume  meaning  and  historic  or  religious 
import.  The  race  memory  is  thus  analogous  to  the  memory 
of  a  child  ;  which  retains  with  great  .vividness  things  that 
come  within  the  scope  of  child  consciousness,  and  afterward 
gives  them  the  interpretation  which  the  relatively  matured 
judgment  of  the  adult  can  commend.  The  myths  and  tradi- 
tions which  survive  from  the  infancy  of  a  race  cannot  be 
ignored.  They  must  rather  be  treated  as  germinal  truths 
and  coordinated  with  the  later  and  riper  sense  of  things. 

For  the  account  of  the  primitive  ages  before  Abraham, 
as  given  in  the  first  eleven  chapters  of  Genesis,  the  writers 
The  Prehis-  draw  upon  a  store  of  myths  common  to  the  vari- 
toric  Myth  qus  branches  of  the  Semitic  stock,  and  in  part 
accessible  to  us  through  the  discovered  remains  of  early 
Babylonian  literature.  They  reproduce  these  myths,  how- 
ever, in  a  kind  of  literary  echo,  refining  them  in  the  light 
of  their  purer  religion,  and  fitting  them  to  the  end  and  pur- 
pose of  their  line  of  history.  Thus  the  two  sources,  J  and 
P,  the  one  the  earliest,  the  other  the  latest,  make  united  use 
of  such  of  this  early  material  as  is  essential  to  their  histori- 
cal scheme.  These  stories  of  the  creation,  of  the  primeval 
giants,  of  the  flood,  of  the  dispersion  of  races,  are  such  sur- 
vivals from  a  remote  past  as  any  historian  must  needs  reckon 
with,  if  only  to  deny  them.  The  Hebrew  historians  do  not 
deny  them,  but  give  them  a  more  rational  meaning;  much 
as  we  make  use  of  Greek  and  Scandinavian  myths  for  ex- 
pository purposes.     In  other  words,  into  the  outworn  form. 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

which  fitted  a  cruder  primitive  conception,  they  put  new 
vakies,  corresponding  to  their  juster  ideas  of  divine  and 
human  nature. 

It  seems  not  unHkely  that  while  the  early  Jehovistic  au- 
thors used  stories  that  came  in  with  Abraham,  the  Priestly 
source,  written  near  the  exile,  revised  its  accounts  by  fresh 
reference  to  Chaldean  traditions. 

The  words  "myth"  and  "mythical,"  as  applied  to  the 
pre-Abrahamic  stratum  of  historv,  require  a  few  words  of 
explanation  ;  being  terms  that  many  are  reluctant  to  apply 
to  anything  Biblical. .  "  We  must  keep  in  mind,"  says  Pro- 
fessor A.  R.  Gordon,^  "what  myths  really  are.  They  are 
not  frauds,  nor  even  conscious  inventions.  They  are  simply 
primitive  explanations  of  the  universe  —  the  ideas  enter- 
tained by  primitive  peoples  of  how  the  world  and  man 
came  to  be.  We  might  call  them  '  primitive  philosophies 
of  nature  and  religion,'  ...  In  their  essence  all  myths 
are  religious." 

All  nations  have  their  peculiar  ideas  of  their  relation  to 
God  or  the  gods  ;  which  ideas  they  reduce  to  the  form  not 
of  logical  demonstration  but  of  story.  Rhetorically  we  may 
call  this  process  exposition  by  narration  ;  it  is  the  literary 
vehicle  best  adapted  to  learned  and  unlearned  alike. "^  What 
coloring  these  myths  take,  in  any  nation,  answers  to  the 
bent  and  temperament  of  the  race  that  adopts  or  invents 
them.  Thus  we  find  in  the  Greek  myths  a  distinctive  trait 
of  aesthetic  beauty  ;  in  the  Latin  myths  a  cold  and  unimagi- 
native hardness  ;  an  element  of  wild  brute  strength  in  the 
Scandina\nan  ;  of  the  fantastic  and  sensuous  in  the  Arabian  ; 
and  of  the  magical  and  cruel,  with  entire  lack  of  human 

1  In  Ilibbcrt  Journal,  Vol.  IV,  p.  171. 
^  For  Wisdom  dealt  with  mortal  powers, 
\Vhere  truth  in  closest  words  shall  fail, 
When  truth  embodied  in  a  tale 
Shall  enter  in  at  lowly  doors. 

Tennyson,  "  In  Memoriam,"  xxxvi. 

[116] 


LOOKING  BEFORE  AND  AFTER 

reasonableness,  in  the  myths  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia. 
Thus  the  myths  reflect  the  character  and  genius  of  the 
people,  and  are  shaped  by  their  ideas  of  deity. 

In  the  hands  of  the  Hebrew  historians,  who  conceived 
of  their  God  as  a  person  like  themselves  and  of  their  rela- 
tions with  him  as  personal  and  reciprocal,  these  Semitic 
race-myths,  which  even  in  their  developed  Babylonian  form 
are  monstrous  and  corrupt,  are  transformed  into  symbolic 
stories  in  which  the  magical  and  fantastic  are  eliminated, 
and  spiritual  truths  are  involved  which  the  ages  since 
have  not  discarded  or  outgrown.  Thus  the  myth  takes  on 
the  elements  of  sane  and  reasonable  manhood. 

Note.  The  Use  of  Myth.  That  the  ancient  and  modern  literary 
uses  of  myths  were  essentiaHy  alike  may  be  seen  by  the  following  pas- 
sages, one  from  a  modern  author,  the  other  a  reference  to  the  Bible. 

1.  Modern  Literary  Use  of  a  Myth.  Carlyle,  speaking  of  the  Scan- 
dinavian myths  (Hero-Worship,  First  Lecture),  thus  sets  forth  the  in- 
forming spirit  of  one  of  them  :  "  Consider  only  their  primary  mythus  of 
the  Creation.  The  Gods,  having  got  the  giant  Ymer  slain,  a  Giant 
made  by  '  warm  wind,'  and  much  confused  work,  out  of  the  conflict  of 
Frost  and  Fire,  —  determined  on  constructing  a  world  with  him.  His 
blood  made  the  Sea ;  his  flesh  was  the  Land ;  the  Rocks  his  bones : 
of  his  eyebrows  they  formed  Asgard  their  God's-dwelling ;  his  skull 
was  the  great  blue  vault  of  Immensity,  and  the  brains  of  it  became  the 
Clouds.  What  a  Hyper-Brobdingnagian  business  !  Untamed  Thought, 
great,  giantlike,  enormous ;  to  be  tamed  in  due  time  into  the  compact 
greatness,  not  giantlike  but  godlike  and  stronger  than  gianthood,  of  the 
Shakespeares,  the  Goethes  !  —  Spiritually  as  well  as  bodily  these  men 
are  our  progenitors." 

2.  Literary  Use  of  My  fit  in  the  Bible.  In  Psalm  Ixxxix,  lo,  and  in 
Isa.  11,  9,  there  are  references  to  a  mythical  Rahab  or  monster-dragon, 
whom  Jehovah  slew;  and  in  Job  xxvi,  13,  the  same  myth  is  mentioned. 
The  reference  in  all  the  cases  is  literary;  that  is,  the  matter  is  treated 
not  as  history  but  as  we  would  use  a  story  or  situation,  from  Beowulf 
or  Sir  Thomas  Malory.  The  whole  chapter  of  Job  in  which  the  refer- 
ence to  Rahab  occurs  is  a  kind  of  parody  or  play  on  vague  mythical 
elements,  given  by  Job  in  ironical  answer  to  Bildad ;  see  my  "  Epic  of 
the  Inner  Life,"  pp.  268-27I. 

["7] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Beginning  with  the  illustrious  progenitor  Abraham  and 
his  family,  the  history  from  Genesis  xii  onward  is  compiled 
„  _  ._  from  legends  and  traditions  peculiar  to  the  Abra- 
Historic  hamic  branch  of  the  Semitic  race.  As  all  the 
Legen  tribes  of  Israel  trace  to  a  common  ancestr\',  the 

Elohistic  line  of  story  as  well  as  the  Jehovistic  begins  here 
to  contribute  to  the  narrative. 

The  name  "legend,"  as  well  as  the  name  "myth,"  has 
offended  some,  who  think  that  the  use  of  the  term  throws 
discredit  on  the  Bible  stories.  It  needs  therefore  to  be  ex- 
plained ;  and  we  may  quote  again  from  the  author  referred 
to  above.  "As  to  the  real  character  of  the  legend,"  he 
says,  "it  is  not  history  in  the  strict  sense,  for  it  cannot 
claim  contemporary  witness  for  its  narratives.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  not  myth.  It  is  no  pure  creation  of  the 
nation's  consciousness,  made  to  explain  the  universe.  It  is 
rather  history  surrounded  with  a  halo  of  natural  poetry — 
the  traditional  history  of  the  nation  in  the  poetic  form  it 
has  assumed  after  passing  for  centuries  through  the  fresh, 
creative  national  spirit.  And  this  is  really  the  reason  why 
the  stories  of  Genesis  are  so  lifelike.  For  legendar}'-  fig- 
ures always  appear  strikingly  lifelike,  often  more  so'  than 
strictly  historical  figures."  ^ 

"It  is  an  accepted  datum  of  scientific  historians,"  the 
author  further  says,  "  that  legend,  as  distinguished  from 
myth,  always  contains  a  nucleus  of  historical  fact."  This 
may  confidently  be  said  of  the  stories  of  the  patriarchs  in 
Genesis,  though  we  cannot  separate  the  nucleus  of  literal 
fact  from  the  legendary  accretion.  In  narrating  the  lives  of 
the  great  patriarchs,  Abraham,  Isaac,  Jacob,  and  Joseph,  the 
historians  have  imparted  to  their  account  all  the  realism  of 
biography,  setting  forth  good  and  bad  traits,  strength  and 
weakness  alike ;  with  no  attempt  to  make  the  character 
heroic,  or  to  palliate  faults.     At  the  same  time,  however, 

1  A.  R.  Gordon,  in  Jlibhcrt  Jatnial,  Vol.  IV,  p.  175. 

[,i8] 


LOOKING  BEFORE  AND  AFTER 

there  is  a  strong  typical  or  symbolic  element  in  the  por- 
trayal ;  as  if  the  person,  besides  being  a  historic  individual, 
were  an  embodiment  of  the  race's  collective  character  in  some 
specific  relation.  Thus  Abraham  is  a  personal  embodiment 
of  faith,  the  fundamental  Hebrew  motive  power  ;  Isaac  of  the 
peaceful  herdsman  and  pastoral  proprietor,  content  in  home 
and  household  ;  Jacob-Israel,  in  his  double  nature  the  most 
masterly  portrayal  in  existence  of  the  typical  Israelite,  with  his 
genius  alike  for  the  worldly  and  the  spiritual ;  Joseph,  of  the 
Hebrew  as  a  man  of  authority  and  efficiency.  It  is  as  if  the 
writers  who  portrayed  these  great  figures  of  tradition  were  not 
only  drawing  on  ancient  facts  but  molding  them  unconsciously 
in  their  racial  image.  They  were  rounding  out  the  legend  by 
creating  men  after  their  inner  ideal,  and  thus  giving  them  a 
function  in  the  prophetic  destiny  of  the  chosen  race.^ 

A  notable  feature  of  these  Genesis  legends,  evincing  the 
keen  historic  sense  of  the  Hebrew  writers,  is  found  in  the 
stories  which  give  the  origin  of  the  various  nations  and  tribes 
related  to  the  Hebrews.  Some  of  these  accounts  are  given 
in 'bald  catalogue  form;  as  for  instance  the  remarkable  list 
of  the  descendants  of  Noah's  sons  in  Genesis  x,  and  the 
list  of  the  descendants  of  Esau,  or  Edom,  in  Genesis  xxxvi. 
Others,  giving  the  origin  *of  the  Ishmaelites  or  Arabians 
(Gen.  xvi ;  xxi,  8-21)  and  the  origin  of  the  Moabites  and 
Ammonites  (Gen.  xix,  30-38),  are  given  in  the  moving  form 
of  narrative.  It  is  in  these  narratives,  especially,  that  the 
affinity  of  the  legend  to  history  is  evident. 

III.  Looking  After  —  Beginnings  of  Literary 
Prophecy 

In  all  the  early  stories  which  the  Hebrew  historians 
gathered  from  antiquity  there  is  a  strong  prophetic  strain  ; 
or  as  we  might  call  it,  a  sense  of  tendency  and  purpose. 

^  See  above,  p.  33.    For  the  legend,  cf.  further  below,  p.  280. 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

This  sense,  in  fact,  inhered  with  the  genius  for  history  and 
its  meanings  which,  as  we  have  noted,  was  distinctive  of  the 
Hebrew  mind.^  Even  the  primitive  Jehovistic  stories  —  of 
the  loss  of  Eden,  of  Cain  and  Abel,  of  Noah's  survival  of 
the  Flood  —  are  as  truly  prophecies  as  histories,  containing 
as  they  do  elements  of  promise  and  outlook  toward  a  high 
destiny  for  mankind.  This  prophetic  strain  becomes  increas- 
ingly marked,  alike  in  the  J  and  the  E  sources,  after  Abra- 
ham has  made  his  great  venture  of  faith  and  founded  a 
family  in  the  hope  of  becoming,  through  his  posterity,  a  light 
and  blessing  to  all  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

It  is  this  sense  of  future  destinies  which  differentiates  the 
Hebrew  line  of  story  from  the  myths  and  legends  of  other 
nations.  Instead  of  a  confused  and  motiveless  past,  such  as 
these  other  legends  reflect,  the  Hebrew  historian  deals  with 
the  "dark  backward  and  abysm  of  time"  as  with  a  history 
of  which  he  possesses  the  secret ;  and  so  those  early  myths, 
so  odd  and  childish  by  other  standards,  become  luminous 
and  reasonable  as  links  in  a  chain  of  prophetic  progress. 
All  this  contributes  to  make  the  Bible,  from  beginning  to 
end,  the  most  forward-looking  book  in  the  world.  "  These 
people  have  a  secret,"  writes  Matthew  Arnold  of  the  He- 
brews ;  "'  they  have  discerned  tht  way  the  world  was  going, 
and'  therefore  they  have  prevailed." 


Oracles  Tribal  and  Racial.  This  prophetic  strain  is  en- 
hanced by  numerous  passages  of  early  literature,  in  the  form 
of  poetic  oracles,  which  we  find  incorporated  at  the  fitting 
places  in  the  text  of  the  history.  These,  tracing  back  to  the 
primitive  times  when  the  family  was  the  social  unit,  embody 
the  hopes  and  presages  connected  with  the  promise  made 
to  Abraham  and  confirmed  in  increasingly  specific  terms  to 

^  See  above,  pp.  37,  38. 
[  120] 


LOOKING  BEFORE  AND  AFTER 

his  posterity.  They  relate  to  the  destiny  of  families,  clans, 
tribes,  and  the  whole  nation ;  recording,  as  it  were,  the 
state  of  the  prophetic  consciousness  at  the  time  and  in  the 
circumstances  purported  by  them.  It  is  uncertain  how  far 
these  oracles  are  actually  the  words  of  the  persons  to  whom 
they  are  attributed.  In  their  present  form  they  are  probably 
later ;  but  at  all  events  they  are  earlier  than  the  completed 
text  in  which  they  occur,  being  incorporated  from  some  an- 
cient source.  It  is  in  such  oracles  as  these  that  formal  and 
articulated  prophecy  begins ;  and  by  these  it  is  represented 
until  the  time  of  the  literary  prophets. 

Examples  may  be  seen  in  the  oracle  given  at  the  birth 
of  Esau  and  Jacob  (Gen.  xxv,  23)  ;  the  blessings  pro- 
nounced later  by  their  father  Isaac  on  Jacob  and  Esau 
(Gen.  xxvii,  27-29,  39,  40)  ;  the  blessing  pronounced  by 
Jacob  on  his  posterity  when  his  sons  had  become  the 
heads  of  clans  (Gen.  xlix,  2^27)  ;  and  the  blessing  pro- 
nounced by  Moses  on  the  tribes  when  they,  as  constituent 
elements  of  a  nation,  were  about  to  enter  the  promised 
land  (Deut.  xxxiii).  All  these  are  prophecies  from  the 
heart  of  the  Hebrew  people,  embodying  its  sacred  con- 
sciousness of  the  calling  and  destiny  appointed  for  the 
heirs  of  Abraham's  faith,  as  far  as  could  be  realized  in 
that  stage  of  their  development. 

The  most  remarkable  example,  perhaps,  of  such  early 
prophecy,  remarkable  because  coming  from  a  seer  of  alien 
A  Testi-  ^^^^  ^^^^  religion,  is  seen  in  the  oracles  of 
moniai  from  Balaam,  with  the  accompanying  episode  of  his- 
°"  tory,    in    Numbers   xxii    to    xxiv.     These    verses 

(mashals  they  are  called)  predict  in  glowing  terms  the  mis- 
sion and  fortunes  of  Israel,  as  seen  by  one  to  whom  against 
his  desire  is  vouchsafed  a  vision  from  Jehovah  concerning 
this  rival  and  hated  people.  Balaam  has  been  hired  to  curse 
Israel  ;  but  in  spite  of  all  his  efforts  he  can  only  pronounce 
a  blessing : 

[121] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

How  shall  I  curse,  whom  God  hath  not  cursed  ? 

And  how  shall  1  defy,  whom  Jehovah  hath  not  defied?  .  .  . 

Lo,  it  is  a  people  that  dwelleth  alone, 

And  shall  not  be  reckoned  among  the  nations.  .  . 

Jehovah  his  (iod  is  with  him. 

And  the  shout  of  a  king  is  among  them.  .  . 

I  see  him,  but  not  now ; 

I  behold  him,  but  not  nigh ; 

There  shall  come  forth  a  star  out  of  Jacob, 

And  a  sceptre  shall  rise  out  of  Israel, 

And  shall  smite  through  the  corners  of  Moab, 

And  break  down  all  the  sons  of  tumult. 

Incidentally  this  strange  Balaam  episode  reveals  the  rela- 
tively crude  conception  that  heathen  nations  had  of  the 
nature  of  a  Deity,  and  of  the  way  to  deal  with  his  mind 
and  "will.  For  Balaam  and  the  king  Balak  who  has  hired 
him  to  voodoo  a  nation  find  to  their  dismay  that  the  God 
of  that  nation  is  one  who  cannot  be  bought,  who  cannot  be 
fooled,  who  cannot  be  changed. 

God  is  not  a  man,  that  he  should  lie. 

Neither  the  son  of  man,  that  he  should  repent. 

This  idea  of  the  changeless  self-consistency  of  God  became, 
so  to  say,  the  axiom  on  which  real  prophecy,  as  distin- 
guished from  divination,  was  founded.  Divination  thought 
of  the  divine  will  as  something  to  be  managed  or  bent  to 
human  purposes.  Prophecy  identified  it  rather  with  the 
most  steadfast  element  of  character,  removing  it  thus  from 
caprice  or  arbitrariness.  It  was  a  lesson  only  gradually 
learned,  and  by  some  costly  experiences.  In  Saul's  time, 
when  the  king  would  play  fast  and  loose  with  God's  bid- 
ding, Samuel  had  to  tell  him,  almost  in  the  words  of 
Balaam,  "And  also  the  Strength  of  Israel  will  not  lie  nor 
repent;  for  he  is  not  a  man,  that  he  should  repent" 
(I  Sam.  XV,  29). 

The  oracles  of  this  ancient  seer  Balaam,  purporting  to 
come   from   the    eve    of    their    entrance   upon   the   land   cf 

[  122  ] 


LOOKING  BEFORE  AND  AFTER 

Canaan,  must  have  had  great  influence  upon  the  subsequent 
hopes  and  principles  of  Israel.  The  story  of  Balaam  was  to 
late  time  one  of  the  best  known  of  their  early  traditions,  and 
was  used  by  later  prophets  as  a  warning  and  monition. 

Note.  The  following  are  the  places  in  Scripture  where  the  story  of 
Balaam  is  referred  to:  Deut.  xxiii,  4,  5;  Josh,  xxiv,  9,  10;  Neh.  xiii, 
2;  Mic.  vi,  5  ;  2  Pet.  ii,  15;  Jude  11.  The  Old  Testament  passages 
commemorate  the  turning  of  the  curse  into  a  blessing ;  the  New  Testa- 
ment passages  condemn  the  prophet  rather  for  "  loving  the  wages  of 
wrong-doing." 

II 

Evolution  of  the  Prophetic  Order.  In. a  general  sense  the 
prophet,  or  seer,  was  a  familiar  figure  from  earliest  times. 
Moses,  the  nation's  great  founder  and  lawgiver,  was  called 
a  prophet  (Deut.  xxxiv,  10),  and  predicted  the  coming  of  a 
successor  like  himself  (Deut.  xviii,  15)  ;  Deborah,  who  acted 
as  champion  and  magistrate  in  Israel,  was  a  prophetess 
(Judg.  iv,  4)  ;  and  soon  after  her  time  the  visit  of  an  un- 
named prophet  is  mentioned  (Judg.  vi,  8),  who  bids  the 
people  not  to  fear  the  gods  of  the  Amorites,  in  whose 
land  they  dwell. 

The  father  of  prophecy  in  its  more  distinctive  sense, 
however,  was  Samuel,  whose  activities  as  judge,  counselor. 
The  Primitive  ^"^  king-maker  were  of  great  importance  to 
Beginnings :  Israel.  It  was  through  the  influence  of  his  stern 
Personal  ^^^  sterling  personality  that  the  people  were  pre- 
pared to  drop  their  tribal  jealoiisies  and  become  an  organ- 
ized state  ;  it  was  by  him  also  that  the  original  constitution 
of  the  monarchy  was  determined  (i  Sam.  x,  25).  He  was 
reared  as  an  acolyte  in  the  temple  at  Shiloh,  having  been 
consecrated  to  the  priesthood  by  his  mother  (i  Sam.  i,  24  ; 
ii,  18,  19).  While  he  was  yet  a  child,  and  at  a  time  when 
prophetic  vision  was  rare,  (i  Sam.  iii,  i),  he  received  divine 
communications  predicting  the  doom  of  the  corrupt  priest- 
hood (I    Sam.  iii,    10-14)  ;    and  as  a  young   man  he  was 

[  123] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

honored  throughout  Israel  as  a  prophet  of  Jehovah  (i  Sam. 
iii,  19-iv,  I).  We  next  read  of  him  as  counsehng  the  peo- 
ple against  taking  up  with  strange  gods  (i  Sam.  vii,  3,  4), 
and  as  interceding  for  them  in  their  weakness  against 
the  Philistines  (i  Sam.  vii,  5-14).  Not  much  more  is  told 
of  him  until  he  was  an  old  man  ;  but  it  would  seem  that 
after  the  temple  at  Shiloh  was  broken  up,  so  that  there  was 
no  longer  a  main  center  for  worship,  sacrifice,  and  oracle, 
he  made  journeys  about  the  land,  ministering  both  as  priest 
and  prophet  at  various  local  sanctuaries  in  turn.  Bethel, 
Gilgal,  Mizpah,  and  his  own  birthplace  Ramah  (i  Sam. 
vii,  15-17);  and  thus  he  spent  a  long  and  useful  life  of 
judgeship. 

He  seems  also  to  have  been  instrumental*  in  forming,  or 
at  least  sanctioning,  bands  of  prophets,  who  perhaps  dwelt  at 
_,^  „  .    .,.     the  various  sanctuaries  and  went  about  the  counti"v 

The  Primitive  ^ 

Beginnings:  like  modern  dervishes  (i  Sam.  x,  5,  6,  10,  11); 
Communal  j^^  himself,  however,  was  not  identified  with 
them.  In  the  actions  of  these  roving  bands  we  get  the  fnost 
primitive  idea  of  prophetic  communication  with  supernatural 
powers.  They  seem  to  have  induced  a  kind  of  ecstasy  by 
means  of  music,  and  in  that  hypnotic  state  to  have  uttered 
emotional  ejaculations  which  according  to  primitive  ideas  were 
supposed  to  be  the  voice  of  the  deity  within.  They  were 
probably  disciples  of  Samuel,  and  like  him  zealous  for  the 
religious  and  patriotic  welfare;  but  not  having  his  breadth 
and  poise  of  character,  their  emotions  in  their  ill-disciplined 
personality  got  beyond  the  control  of  intellect  and  will,  and 
expressed  themselves  in  odd  and  unintelligible  ways.  Such 
phenomena  are  apt  to  occur  in  all  primitive  religions,  and 
are  by  no  means  unknown  in  uncultivated  communities  in 
modern  times.  They  represent  a  primal  stage  in  the  develop- 
ment of  prophetic  gifts,  before  prophecy  had  become  so  ame- 
nable to  reason  and  intellect  as  to  express  itself  in  ordered 
literary  utterance.    Such   trancelike  performances  were  not 


LOOKING  BEFORE  AND  AFTER 

received  with  favor  by  the  matter-of-fact  Israelites.  Joshua 
would  have  suppressed  an  outbreak  of  prophecy  in  the  camp 
in  the  wilderness  ;  but  Moses,  from  his  deeper  spiritual  in- 
sight, was  more  tolerant  (Num.  xi,  26-30).  That  they  were 
not  highly  accounted  of  in  Samuel's  time,  or  received  with- 
out doubts  of  their  genuine  relation  to  the  mind  of  God, 
would  seem  to  be  indicated  by  the  question  asked  of  these 
dervish-prophets  by  a  certain  sceptic  who  noted  their  per- 
formance, "And  who  is  their  father.?"  (i  Sam.  x,  12). 
It  was  in  fact  instinctively  felt  from  the  beginning  that 
prophecy  must  authenticate  itself  not  only  by  mysterious 
tokens  but  by  sanity  and  reason  ;  and  its  development  was 
in  that  direction,  with  the  crude  and  uncouth  gradually 
disappearing  and  the  thoughtful  and  self-controlled  more 
evident,  until  it  reached  its  culmination  in  the  work  of 
the  great  literary  prophets. 

The  prophetic  order  was  a  development  from  an  earlier 
and  more  primitive  institution.    In  connection  with  Samuel, 

„  ,  ,  who  gave  it  distinctive  function  and  character. 
Grades  of  "  _  ' 

Prophetic       the  remark   was   made  :    "  Beforetime  in    Israel, 
^  ^  when  a   man  went   to   inquire  of   God,  thus   he 

said,  '  Come,  and  let  us  go  to  the  seer  '  ;  for  he  that  is  now 
called  a  prophel:  was  beforetime  called  a  seer"  (i  Sam.  ix, 
.9).  A  seer  {ro  cJi)  seems  in  early  times  to  have  been  a 
man  who  by  some  means  of  divination  would  get  signs  for 
future  ventures  in  war,  or  for  the  recovery  of  lost  property  ; 
receiving  for  his  services  a  fee.  That  was  the  idea  that 
Saul  and  his  servant  had  of  Samuel,  when  Saul's  asses 
were  lost  (i  Sam.  ix,  6-8).  He  was  regarded  as  a  kind  of 
fortune  teller ;  and  such  men  were  numerous  in  all  nations. 
A  somewhat  higher  class  of  such  interrogators  of  the  future 
or  of  the  occult  went  by  the  name  of  Gazer  (Jiozcli).  Such 
were  attached  to  kings'  courts  as  counselors,  who  by 
employing  some  clairvoyant  method  gave  advice  for  under- 
takings in  war  or  affairs  of  state.    (See  2  Sam.  xxiv,  11.) 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Both  of  these  orders,  however,  seem  to  have  become 
obsolete,  and  their  methods  discredited,  with  the  coming  of 
the  true  prophet ;  who  was  called  by  a  name  signifying  a 
"  spokesman  "  {nabi)  ;  that  is,  of  Jehovah.  In  the  nabi',  or 
spokesman,  the  order  of  prophets  first  reached  the  dignity, 
wisdom,  and  authority  worthy  of  the  high  name  of  prophet. 
Samuel,  whom  his  contemporaries  called  the  seer,  had  a 
personality  too  great  to  be  measured  by  divination  and 
fortune  telling ;  and  this  was  so  felt  by  the  people  that 
a  more  honorable  name  must  be  given  him.  "Jehovah  was 
with  him,"  the  historian  relates,  "  and  did  let  none  of  his 
words  fall  to  the  ground.  And  all  Israel  from  Dan  even 
to  Beersheba  knew  that  Samuel  was  established  to  be  a 
prophet  of  Jehovah  "  (i   Sam.  iii,   19,  20). 

These  different  ranks  were  not  sharply  discriminated ; 
and  more  than  one  kind  of  prophetic  gift  might  be  united 
in  one  person.  Gad,  King  David's  gazer,  also  ranked  as 
a  prophet  or  spokesman  for  Jehovah  (2  Sam.  xxiv,  11). 
It  is  worthy  of  note  that  to  all  the  men  called  prophets 
in  David's  time  is  attributed  both  statesman  and  literary 
activity.  Samuel  wrote  "  the  manner  of  the  kingdom  "  in 
a  book  (I  Sam.  x,  25)  ;  and  a  later  historian  attributes 
written  annals  to  Samuel,  Nathan,  and  Gad  (i  Chron. 
xxix,  29).  From  the  time  when  the  name  "  nabi'  "  was 
first  given,  it  would  thus  seem,  the  prophetic  order  was 
associated  with  literature. 

We  speak  of  the  prophetic  order,  as  if  there  were 
something  official  or  established  about  it.  And  indeed 
we  find  accounts  of  companies  of  prophets,  who  were 
ready  for  professional  employment,  and  whose  words  re- 
flected the  general  level  of  public  opinion  or  desire,  or 
perhaps  the  endeavor  to  please  their  employers.  A  remark- 
able example  of  this  is  reported  in  the  prophecies  uttered 
before  the  kings  Ahab  and  Jehoshaphat  before  the  cam- 
paign against  Ramoth-Gilead  (i   Kings  xxii,  5-23).    This, 

[126] 


LOOKING  BEFORE  AND  AFTER 

however,  was  not  favorable  to  spokesmanship  for  One 
whose  "  thoughts  are  not  as  men's  thoughts  "  (cf.  Isa,  Iv,  8). 
Accordingly  we  find  that  prophets  of  the  highest  type, 
those  who  have  suffered  for  their  message,  have  not 
allowed  themselves  such  partnership.  They  have  refused 
to  prophesy  for  hire  or  reward,  and  sometimes  have  dis- 
claimed professionalism  (cf.  Amos  vii,  12-14;  Zech.  xiii, 
4,  5).  This  they  have  done  in  the  conviction  that  the 
word  of  Jehovah  through  them  must  be  free,  and  they 
be  beholden  to  no  man.  A  fee  or  reward  seemed  to 
them  like  a  bribe,  and  so  far  forth  a  restraint  upon  their 
conscience.  Hence  they  held  themselves  independent  of 
kings'  courts,  or  money,  or  perfunctory  duties,  that  they 
might  be  accountable  to  no  one  but  Jehovah.  And  many 
times  their  reward  was  martyrdom  or  imprisonment. 

Among  the  various  lines  of  social  and  cultural  activity 
in  Israel  we  need  to  distinguish  the  specific  function  tacitly 
Th  Pr  h-  ^^  ^°^  officially  accorded  to  the  prophets.  Theirs 
et's  Specific  was  a  function  independenj;  of  the  temporary 
unc  ion  expediencies  or  vicissitudes  of  state  ;  unmind- 
ful of  social  conventions  or  public  opinion  ;  claiming  justifi- 
cation only  by  its  single-minded  fidelity  to  a  larger  and 
more  spiritual  vision.  They  were  indeed  the  nation's  men 
of  insight  and  foresight.  Their  authorizing  formula  was, 
"Thus  saith  Jehovah"  ;  and  they  must  abide  the  issue  of 
their  message,  whether  one  of  weal  d^  woe. 

This  function  of  the  prophets  sets  them  apart  from  the 
everyday  affairs  of  the  people ;  which  indeed  were  well 
cared  for.  For  the  ordinary  educative  work  of  life,  and 
for  the  affairs  of  industry  and  society,  the  people  had  the 
counsels  of  their  sages,  which  developed  into  the  Wisdom 
literature  ;  they  had  the  stories  of  their  popular  historians, 
which  we  have  noted  in  the  Jehovistic  and  Elohistic  strata 
of  the  early  history  ;  they  had  the  legal  decisions  of  magis- 
trates and  priests,  which  we  shall   see  later  codified  in  a 

[127] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

fund  of  sacred  and  statute  law  ;  they  liad  the  poetn-  and 
liturgical  services  of  the  Temple  and  local  sanctuaries.  With 
these  domestic  matters  the  prophets  did  not  concern  them- 
selves, except  to  keep  the  people's  conscience  true  to  the 
principles  underlying  them,  as  a  means  to  the  integrity  of 
their  national  character  and  mission.  They  were  rather  the 
men  for  the  care  of  the  large  movements,  crises,  emer- 
gencies of  the  nation  ;  for  meeting  the  crucial  points  of 
history  and  policy,  when  the  issue  was  between  man's  way 
and  God's  way,  and  when  national  faith,  honor,  and  integ- 
rity were  at  stake.  In  brief,  the  prophets  were  the  divinely 
called  men  by  whom  Israel's  large  national  movements  were 
interpreted  and  determined. 

Accordingly,  we  find  the  earlier  prophets  appearing  when 
a  monarchy  was  to  be  set  up  (i  Sam.  x,  17-27);  when 
the  royal  succession  was  to  be  determined  (i  Sam.  xvi, 
1-13  ;  I  Kings  i,  22-30)  ;  when  a  division  of  the  kingdom 
was  decreed  (i  Kings  xi,  29-39) !  when  the  nation's  supreme 
religious  allegiance  was  at  stake  (i  Kings  xviii,  21—39); 
when  dynasties  were  to  be  changed  (2  Kings  viii,  7-15). 
Thus,  it  would  seem,  the  specific  function  of  the  great 
prophets  was  to  make  known  Jehovah's  mind  concerning 
Israel's  mission  and  destiny ;  to  correct  the  tendencies  that 
unfitted  the  people  to  meet  their  future  strongly  and  vic- 
toriously ;  and  to  enlighten  them  in  the  principles  that 
guarantee  a  noble  deStiny.  All  this  we  may  sum  up  in  a 
word,  by  saying,  the  prophets  were  the  enlightened  con- 
science of  the  nation.  They  made  mistakes,  as  all  men 
do ;  and  sometimes  their  policies  must  bring  disaster  in 
immediate  results  in  order  to  secure  a  larger  and  more 
permanent  good.  Though  at  the  forefront  of  affairs,  yet 
after  all  they  were  only  the  next  step  ahead,  themselves 
undergoing  education  in  Jehovah's  word  and  will,  with  their 
spiritual  horizon  broadening  as  they  went  along.  On  the 
whole  their  vision  was  clear  for  the  portion  of  the  field  in 

[128] 


LOOKING  BEFORE  AND  AFTER 

which  they  worked  ;  they  could  be  sure  of  the  consisten^ 
direction  of  affairs  if  not  of  their  ultimate  goal ;  and  their 
allegiance  to  the  God  whose  spokesmen  they  were  was 
sincere  and  unbought. 

Ill 

Era  of  Prophetic  Masters  and  Guilds.  What  is  here 
said  of  the  prophet's  specific  function  applies  preeminently 
to  the  greater  prophets,  who  represent  prophecy  in  its  more 
momentous  import  for  the  future,  and  of  whom  only  one 
or  two  would  be  active  in  a  generation.  By  the  weight  of 
their  message  and  personality  they  were  natural  leaders, 
"powers  behind  the  throne,"  with  whom  both  king  and 
people  must  reckon.  Intimately  associated  with  the  affairs 
and  policies  of  the  state,  they  were  to  a  decisive  extent 
determinators  of  its  destiny.  Such  was  Samuel,  who,  as 
we  have  seen,  was  the  father  of  the  prophetic  order  and 
the  founder  of  the  united  kingdom  (i  Sam,  viii,  xii).  Such 
was  Nathan,  the  confirmer  of  the  dynasty  to  King  David 
(2  Sam.  vii),  the  fearless  denouncer  of  the  king  in  the 
latter's  sad  lapse  into  adultery  and  treachery  (2  Sam.  xii, 
1-15),  and  the  means  of  perpetuating  the  dynasty  in  the 
line' of  Solomon  (i  Kings  i,   11-31). 

To  these  original  leaders  may  be  added,  on  a  somewhat 
lower  plane,  Ahijah  the  Shilonite,  who  encouraged  the 
revolutionary  ambition  of  Jeroboam  I  (i  Kings  xi,  29-39), 
and  later  cut  off  the  succession  ([  Kings  xiv,  1-18);  Jehu 
the  son  of  Hanani,  who  prophesied  similarly  to  the  wicked 
King  Baasha  (i  Kings  xvi,  1-4)  ;  and  Micaiah  the  son  of 
Irnlah,  who  incurred  imprisonment  for  prophesying  truly  but 
unfavorably,  in  opposition  to  a  company  of  false  prophets 
(i  Kings  xxii,  5-28),  These,  and  more  that  might  be 
mentioned  (e.g,  i  Kings  xiii ;  xx,  35-43),  were  prophets 
not  for  national  leadership  but  for  special  crises  and 
occasions. 

[129] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

To  Samuel  and  Nathan,  whose  work  was  done  in  the 
pre-hterary  times,  fell  a  large  share  of  that  personal  as- 
Eiijah  and  cendancy  which,  as  we  have  seen,^  was  the 
Ehsha  natural    inspiration    and    support    of    the    people 

befoie  the  age  of  books.  After  the  literary  awaking  under 
Solomon  personal  ascendancy  does  not  seem  to  have  counted 
for  so  much  in  the  southern  kingdom,  its  place  being  in- 
creasingly taken  by  the  ideas  embodied  in  the  songs  and 
proverbs  which  the  psalmists  and  sages  so  readily  made 
into  an  educative  agency.  In  the  northern  kingdom,  how- 
ever, away  from  the  literary  centers,  the  era  of  undiffused 
thought  lasted  longer,  and  the  need  of  personal  guidance 
and  ascendancy  was  correspondingly  protracted.  It  was  in 
this  kingdom  of  Israel  that  most  of  the  early  prophetic 
work  was  'done,  and  that  by  the  itinerant  and  personal 
method  which  the  career  of  Samuel  has  made  familiar. 
Among  the  men  who  thus  worked  for  the  welfare  of  the 
northern  kingdom,  two  names  stand  out  preeminent,  the 
names  Elijah  and  Elisha.  The  stories  dealing  with  them, 
which  begin  with  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  i  Kings  and 
extend  to  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  2  Kings,  are  told  in 
the  familiar  folk's  style,  quite  differently  from  the  prevail- 
ing annalistic  accounts  in  which  they  are  embedded  ;  and 
probably  were  derived  not  from  documents  but  from  the 
oral  traditions  of  the  prophetic  schools  which  as  we  know 
were  a  feature  of  the  times. 

Each  of  the  two  great  prophets,  whose  characters  were  in 
quite  marked  contrast,  fitted  providentially  into  his  time  and 
mission.  Elijah,  the  stern  ascetic,  through  his  services  in 
committing  the  northern  realm  at  a  time  of  great  peril  to 
the  exclusive  worship  of  Jehovah,  and  through  his  champion- 
ship of  the  plain  people  against  the  king's  arbitrary  despo- 
tism, became  the  traditional  type  of  the  prophet,  Jehovah's 

^  Compare  what  is  said  about  personal  ascendancy,  its  good,  and  the 
lack  it  leaves;  see  above,  pp.  72-76. 

[130] 


LOOKING  BEFORE  AND  AFTER 

spokesman  and  herald,  later  reproduced  in  John  the  Baptist 
(cf.  Mai.  iv,  5  ;  Matt,  xi,  14).  Elisha,  more  a  man  of  the 
people  and  less  austere,  dwelling  among  them  as  a  person 
to  be  consulted  by  king  and  common  man  alike,  was  a 
politician-prophet  who,  though  mainly  true  to  high  ideals, 
was  not  without  a  certain  shiftiness  and  subtlety  in  the 
affairs  of  state,  and  indeed  was  the  contriver  of  the  bloody 
revolution  under  Jehu  which  in  the  end  cost  the  kingdom 
dear.  Of  both  these  prophets  miracles  are  reported  ;  a  fact 
which  betokens  a  relatively  raw  and  unreflective  state  of 
society,  into  which  spiritual  ideas  had  found  small  entrance. 
In  the  Hebrew  idiom  a  disciple  or  follower  is  called 
a  son.  The  sons  of  the  prophets  were  such  disciples. 
The  Sons  of  They  seem  to  have  acted  as  servants  or  agents 
the  Prophets  of  the  greater  prophets  (cf.  2  Kings  ix,  1-3); 
not  giving  original  prophecies  on  their  own  account,  but 
learning  the  mind  of  the  great  seers  and  propagating  their 
religious  and  patriotic  warnings  among  the  people.  We" 
first  hear  of  companies  of  prophets  in  the  time  of  Samuel, 
when  they  seem  to  have  been  connected  with  the  sanctu- 
aries, and  to  have  been  in  some  way  under  the  direction 
of  Samuel  (i  Sam.  x,  5,  10).  The  first  use  of  the  term 
"sons  of  the  prophets"  occurs  in  the  time  of  King  Ahab 
(i  Kings  XX,  35-43),  when  a  certain  one  of  their  number 
by  a  symbolic  act  reproved  the  king  for  his  clemency  in 
sparing  his  enemy  the  king  of  Syria.  At  that  time  they 
seem  to  have  been  a  recognized  class  or  guild  (cf.  2  Kings 
ii,  3,  5),  like  itinerant  or  cloistered  friars,  who  subsisted 
probably  by  the  people's  alms.  We  hear  most  about  them 
in  the  time  of  Elisha  ;  when  they  seem  to  have  lived 
together  in  communities  of  their  own  (cf.  2  Kings  vi,  1-7), 
to  have  worn  a  distinctive  badge  or  mark  (cf.  i  Kings  xx, 
38,  41),  or  perhaps  a  monkish  costume  (cf.  Zech.  xiii,  4), 
and  to  have  been  cognizant  of  the  great  prophets'  move- 
ments.   Wives  of  such  sons  of  the  prophets  are  mentioned 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

(cf.  2  Kings  iv,  i)  ;  so  they  were  not  required  to  be  celi- 
bates. They  were  not  highly  rated  by  the  upper  classes 
(cf,  2  Kings  ix,  ii)  ;  and  their  primitive  ways  of  inducing 
the  prophetic  frenzy  fell  into  disrepute  as  prophecy  took  on 
more  the  sanity  of  ordered  literary  utterance  (Jer.  xxix,  26  ; 
Hos.  ix,  7),  In  the  times  before  prophecy  became  liter- 
ary, however,  and  especially  among  uncultivated  people, 
the  order  of  the  sons  of  the  prophets  doubtless  served  a 
useful  purpose. 


[132] 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 

[The  eighth  century  till  701  B.C.] 

WITH  the  coming  of  the  hterary  prophets,  of  whom 
the  earhest  that  can  be  dated  was  Amos  (about 
754  B.C.),  the  unique  Hebrew  institution  of  prophecy  came 
to  its  most  distinctive  mission,  and  through  a  period  of  about 
two  and  a  half  centuries  ran  a  very  significant  course  in  his- 
tory. The  first  half  century  of  this  time,  until  701  b.c,  for 
reasons  which  will  appear,  may  be  regarded  as  a  period  of 
stress,  in  which  prophetic  insight  and  foresight  is  approach- 
ing, for  both  kingdoms,  a  great  crisis,  the  crisis  of  national 
dissolution  and  exile.  During  this  period  the  northern  king- 
dom went  under  (in  722  b.c.)  ;  while  Judah,  the  southern 
kingdom,  was  for  a  time  delivered,  its  exile  not  coming 
until  586  B.C.,  more  than  a  century  later.  The  surviving 
kingdom,  however,  did  not  go  unscathed.  By  the  Assyrian 
encroachments  and  invasions  until  701  it  passed  through 
an  experience  of  menace  and  suspense  second  only  to  actual 
overthrow.  It  was  by  a  miraculous  deliverance  that  Judah 
was  temporarily  relieved  and  the  faith  of  prophecy  vindicated  ; 
and  the  sudden  event  by  which  this  v\fas  brought  about  ranks 
as  one  of  the  most  notable  epochs  in  the  nation's  history. 

This  period  of  prophetic  stress  we  may  regard,  in  the 
large,  as  a  time  during  which  the  strenuous  business  of  the 
prophets  was  to  prepare  both  kingdoms  for  their  doom,  and 
for  their  worthy  survival  of  it.  The  prophets  mainly  con- 
cerned in  this  were  :  Amos  and  Hosea  for  the  northern 
kingdom,  and  Micah  and   Isaiah   for  the  southern. 

[  ^33] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

I.  The  Impending  Crisis 

Up  to  the  death  of  Ehsha  the  activities  of  the  prophets, 
though  concerned  with  the  nation  rather  than  with  the  in- 
dividual, were  directed  mainly  to  its  domestic  affairs  :  with 
its  succession  of  kings,  as  in  the  case  of  Samuel,  Nathan, 
Ahijah,  and  others  ;  with  the  purity  of  its  worship,  as  in 
the  case  of  Elijah  ;  and  with  its  relations  to  the  neighboring 
kingdom  of  Syria,  as  in  the  case  of  Elisha.  It  will  be  noted, 
too,  that  prophetic  activity,  when  once  the  kingdom  was 
split  in  two,  was  confined  to  the  northern  kingdom.  The 
reason  for  this  seems  to  be  that  the  northern  kingdom, 
being  less  fixed  and  organized  in  its  religious  and  moral 
ideals,  had  correspondingly  more  need  of  the  personal  in- 
fluence of  the  prophets,  giving  it  warnings  and  directions  as 
it  were  from  hand  to  mouth  ;  while  in  Judah  the  temple, 
with  its  priests,  psalmists,  and  scholars,  was  far  more  com- 
mitted to  the  steadying  and  enlightening  influence  of  law 
and  literature,  making  personal  labors  to  a  degree  super- 
fluous.^ Prophets  were  men  for  crises  and  emergencies ;  and 
with  these  junctures,  so  long  as  they  remained  domestic, 
the  southern  kingdom,  having  a  more  deeply  founded  civil, 
social,  and  religious  organization,  was  better  fitted  by  its  in- 
herent resources  to  cope. 

A  great  crisis  was  impending,  however,  which  would  draw 
the  nation  out  of  its  parish  and  provincial  ideas ;  which  soon 
after  the  death  of  Elisha  began  to  attract  the  attention  of 
thoughtful  statesmen  ;,and  which  called  forth  the  utmost  of 
prophetic  insight  and  foresight,  in  both  kingdoms,  to  cope 
with.  Israel,  hitherto  a  secluded  and  self-centered  nation, 
must  henceforth  reckon  with  the  great  powers  of  the  world. 
To  understand  this,  and  the  scope  of  it,  we  must  consider 
the  momentous  world  movement  that  the  nation  was  des- 
tined to  encounter. 

1  Cf.  above,  p.  130. 

[^34] 


THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 


The  Broad  Historical  Situation.  It  was  just  when  the 
great  mihtary  empire  of  Assyria  began  to  move  in  its  career 
of  world  conquest  that  the  Hterary  prophets,  who  were  men 
of  larger  than  local  caliber,  began  their  work  with  the  Hebrew 
people.  That  work  was  addressed  first  to  home  interests  ;  but 
it  always  had  a  world  background,  in  the  implicit  conscious- 
ness that  Jehovah,  as  God  of  heaven  and  earth,  was  shaping 
the  mysterious  events  of  history  to  His  purpose.  The  broad 
situation  of  things,  and  Israel's  relation  thereto,  comes  pro- 
gressively into  view,  as  the  prophetic  era  advances. 

Up  to  the  eighth  century  before  Christ  the  ancient  civili- 
zations, "which  were  of  Semitic  stock  and  centered  in  the 
Mesopotamian  plains-  and  uplands,  could  hardly  be  called 
empires,  in  the  sense  of  united  and  organized  governments. 
The  political  genius  was  not  their  gift.  They  were  loose 
agglomerations  of  tribes,  held  together  only  by  military  force 
and  despotism ;  tribes  with  discordant  passions  and  interests, 
each  petty  province  or  city  with  its  local  god,  and  each 
larger  state  having  a  pantheon  of  jealous  and  quarreling 
deities.  In  all  their  strifes  with  each  other  the  powers 
and  fortunes  of  the  gods  were  involved  with  those  of  the 
people,  sharing  with  them  in  victory  or  defeat.  Deities  were 
honored  or  despised  according  to  their  prowess  in  wars  or 
raids,  and  according  to  their  caprice  in  sending  or  with- 
holding fruitful  seasons.  Such  was  the  prevailing  religious 
consciousness  of  those  times. 

Of  these  ancient  civilizations  Chaldea,  with  its  capital  at 
Babylon,  was  the  oldest  and  most  highly  cultured  ;  a  kind 
of  recognized  arbitress  of  the  thought  and  learning  of  the 
eastern  world. ^  At  the  opening  of  our  era,  however,  Assyria, 
farther  up  the  great  rivers,  which  was  a  daughter  state  of 

1  This  seems  to  be  implied  in  Isaiah's  oracle  against  Babylon  ;  see 
especially  Isa.  xiv,  4  ("  exactress,"  margin)  ;  and  xiv,  12-14. 

[135] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Chaldea  and  a  worshiper  of  the  same  deities,  was  in  the 
ascendant ;  being  strongest  and  most  aggressive  in  mihtary 
conquest.  Its  capital  was  at  Nineveh.  It  has  been  described 
as  "  the  most  brutal  empire  which  was  ever  suffered  to  roll 
its  force  across  the  world."  ^ 

It  was  with  this  arrogant  military  empire,  from  about 
745  B.C.,  when  Tiglath  Pileser  IV  began  to  reign,  that  the 
little  states  around  the  eastern  end  of  the  Mediterranean 
Sea,  Israel  among  them,  had  to  reckon  ;  the  Assyrian  hosts 
coming,  in  successive  raids  of  conquest,  devastating,  ravag- 
ing, extorting  tribute,  or  deporting  whole  communities  and 
peoples,  until,  outside  of  Egypt,  the  Assyrian  empire  was 
virtually  master  of  the  ancient  world.  It  was  not  a  power 
to  civilize,  but  to  subjugate,  and  to  enrich  itself  with  booty 
and  slaves. 

All  this  looks,  from  one  point  of  view,  like  a  meaningless 
chaos  of  brute  force  and  heartless  greed.  Such  perhaps  was 
Its  Developed  its  only  conscious  motive.  Not  so,  however,  did 
Meaning  ^^g  prophets  regard  it ;  nor  can  we  so  interpret 
it,  in  the  broader  historical  light  which  later  ages  shed  upon 
it.  It  was  rather  the  beginning  of  a  vast  world  movement 
toward  unity,  toward  concentrated  and  organized  power,  and 
so  toward  such  stable  and  homogeneous  government  as  could 
be  the  field  for  a  progressive  and  enlightened  civilization. 
As  such  it  was  as  truly  Jehovah's  work  as  was  his  local 
preparation  in  Israel.  He  had  a  purpose  for  civilization  as 
well  as  for  religion  ;  and  as  this  was  by  degrees  disclosed 
the  prophets  realized  increasingly  that  he  was  rising  as  in 
wrath  to  "do  his  work,  his  strange  work,  and  bring  to  pass 
his  act,  his  strange  act"  (Isa.  xxviii,  2i). 

The  vigorous  but  ferocious  empire  of  Assyria  had  its  day ; 
and  was  followed  in  course  of  time  by  the  more  humane  and 
cultured  empire  of  Chaldea  ;  and  this  in  turn,  under  the  con- 
quests of  Cyrus,  by  the  more  austere  sway  of  Medo-Persia. 

1  G.  A.  Smith,  "  Book  of  the  Twelve  Prophets,"  Vol.  II,  p.  91. 
[136] 


THE  STRESS   OF  PROPHECY 

Under  this  latter  regime  the  Aryan  race,  with  its  genius  for 
civihzation,  took  the  helm  of  world-empire  from  the  Semitic 
hands  hitherto  in  control  ;  the  same  imperial  dominance 
that  through  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  also  of  Aryan  stock, 
and-  their  modern  successors,  has  continued  to  this  day  the 
chief  civilizing  power  of  the  world. 

It  was  just  during  this  colossal  shift  of  empire  from 
Semitic  to  Aryan  hands  that  the  Hebrew  era  of  literary 
The  Hebrew  prophccy  lasted,  and  that  the  people  of  Israel 
Contribution  underwent  their  strange  fortune  of  exile,  disper- 
sion, and  return,  l^heir  destiny  was  to  be  not  that  of  a  vic- 
torious but  of  a  tributary  and  subject  people;  to  be  absorbed, 
like  other  peoples,  in  the  huge  melting-pot  of  tribes  and 
cults.  Not  like  other  peoples,  however,  were  tliey  to  lose 
their  identity,  or  the  sacred  religious  trust  which  they  had 
inherited  from  their  fathers.  From  a  very  early  period  of 
their  history  they  had  possessed  the  oracle  pronounced  upon 
them  by  Balaam  (Num.  xxiii,  9)  : 

Lo,  it  is  a  people  that  dwelleth  alone, 

And  shall  not  be  reckoned  among  the  nations ; 

and  whatever  vicissitudes  of  worldly  lot  they  passed  through, 
though  it  were  the  extreme  of  oppression  and  dispersion, 
that  distinctiveness  and  independence  of  character  must  re- 
main intact.  It  was  to  promote  this  —  to  define  and  purge 
and  purify  it  —  that  the  great  prophets  began,  as  it  were 
instinctively,  to  work,  as  soon  as  the  peril  of  invasion  began 
to  be  foreseen.  It  was  their  way  of  making  their  people 
ready  for  their  fate  ;  fortifying  them  not  by  walls  and  ram- 
parts but  by  character.  And  when  the  stress  came,  a  sterling 
character,  an  enlightened  conscience,  was  their  contribution 
to  the  welter  of  the  times. 


[137] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

II 

Rising  to  the  Occasion.  As  the  nation  thus  approaches 
the  crisis  of  its  destiny,  it  is  well  to  note  how  the  literary 
method  of  the  great  prophets  conforms  to  the  largS  situa- 
tion. Prophecy,  as  a  type  of  literary  utterance,  has  a  style  of 
its  own,  quite  different  from  that  of  the  historians  and  sages, 
and  eminently  adapted  to  its  sublime  object  and  mission. 

Note.  Tlie  Prophetic  Style.  Professor  Gardiner,  in  "  The  Bible  as 
Englisli  Literature,"  p.  209,  thus  describes  it : 

"  Of  all  the  writings  in  the  [English]  Bible  these  oracles  of  the 
prophets  are  the  most  foreign  and  the  least  like  anything  that  we  have 
in  modern  literature :  as  they  appear  here  they  belong  to  a  vanished 
past.  Men  are  still  born  who  have  glimpses  of  the  everlasting  verities 
to  communicate  to  other  men  ;  but  they  deliver  them  in  forms  wholly 
different.  The  prophet  of  the  Old  Testament  was  at  once  preacher  and 
statesman,  seer  of  visions  and  guide  in  the  affairs  of  the  nation,  reformer 
of  religion,  moralist,  and  poet.  The  prophecies  contain  deliverances  on 
all  subjects,  from  new  revelations  of  the  nature  of  Jehovah  to  the  practical 
questions  of  tithes  or  the  keeping  of  the  Sabbath.  Yet  through  them 
all  ...  ,  the  normal  form  is  poetical,  and  they  all  show  the  parallelism 
of  the  Hebrew  poetry." 

As  regards  its  form,  the  prophetic  style  has  the  rhythmical 
swing  of  impassioned  address.  Its  verse  structure,  if  such 
we  may  call  it,  is  not  so  lyrical  as  that  of  the  Psalms  ;  not 
so  condensed  in  phrasing  as  that  of  the  Proverbs  and  Job. 
It  bears  much  the  same  relation  to  the  more  metrical  types 
of  poetry  that  dramatic  blank  ver.se  like  Shakespeare's  bears 
to  lyric  and  heroic  verse  like  Wordsworth's  or  Pope's. 
Some  analogy  to  it  is  furnished  by  the  rhythmical  and  yet 
not  measured  roll  of  high  oratory,  like  Web.ster's  or  Burke's. 
In  other  words,  it  is  the  style  naturally  evolved  in  a  nation 
gifted  with  the  poetry  of  passion,  when  a  speaker  conscious 
that  he  is  dealing  with  the  most  momentous  issues  of  life 
puts  into  his  utterance  (essentially  oral)  the  whole  energy  of 
his  emotion,  his  imagination,  and  his  idealized  thinking. 


THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 

It  is  its  transcendent  point  of  view,  and  scale  of  treat- 
ment, the  high  issues  with  which  it  deals,  and  the  imagery 
Identification  ^^^'-'  atmosphere  thus  occasioned,  whic!i  make 
withjeho-  the  prophetic  style  sound  so  foreign  to  modern 
vah's  nd  ^^^^^  y|^g  prophets  themselves  maintain  that  they 
are  bringing  to  men  the  actual  words  of  Deity.  "Thus  saith 
Jehovah"  is  the  distinctive  prophetic  formula.  They  are  not 
without  a  sense  of  what  this  means  for  scope,  dignity,  sub- 
limity, and  power  of  language.  They  must  indeed  put  their 
thoughts  in  "matter-moulded  forms  of  speech"";  but  they 
are  consciously  expressing  God's  thought  and  presuming 
to  make  Him  speak  in  character.  It  is  a  felt  interfusion  of 
divine  and  human  mind  ;  and  therefore  subject,  style,  and 
point  of  view  must  be  befitting  to  so  high  a  source  and 
copartnership.  To  work  in  the  feeling  that  they  were 
responsible  spokesmen  of  the  Being  who 

formeth  the  mountains,  and  createth  the  winds, 
And  declareth  unto  man  what  is  his  thought  ^ 

■must  have  been,  however  we  view  the  result,  the  most  tre- 
mendous literary  enterprise  ever  undertaken  by  man.  And 
the  thought  of  Jehovah,  dealing  with  earthly  and  human 
affairs  as  their  Creator  and  Controller  sees  them,  must 
needs  be  strange  unless  the  writer  and  reader  can  in  a 
degree  raise  themselves  to  the  same  point  of  view. 

The  habitually  recognized  sphere  of  Jehovah's  will  and 
work  is  not  limited  in  time  and  space.  This  presupposition 
Attitude  to-  ^^  ^^^  literary  prophets  becomes  increasingly  clear 
ward  Natu-  to  them  as  their  work  goes  on.  Jehovah's  word 
orces  jg  brought  indeed  to  a  particular  chosen  nation, 
and  is  adapted  to  a  particular  situation  ;  but  its  field  of 
operation  is  the  whole  unbounded  world  of  nature  and  man. 
This  seems  to  be  recognized  in  the  constantly  used  term 
"Jehovah  of  Hosts,"  the  prophetic  title  ascribed  to  God, 

1  Amos  iv,  13. 
[139] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

For  lo,  he  that  formeth  the  mountains,  and  createth  the  wind, 

And  declareth  unto  man  what  is  his  thought ; 

That  maketh  the  morning  darkness, 

And  treadeth  upon  the  high  places  of  the  earth,  — 

Jehovah,  the  God  of  hosts,  is  his  name ;  ^  — 

wherein  it  is  left  undefined  whether  His  "  hosts  "  are  the 
hosts  of  heaven,  the  forces  of  nature,  or  the  armies  of  men. 
It  is  a  comprehensive  term  for  whatever  agency,  natural  or 
spiritual,  works  His  purpose  in  the  world. 

Hence  the  great  natural  forces,  not  deified  as  by  the 
heathen,  nor  distributed  among  various  wills  as  by  poly- 
theists,  are  rather  Jehovah's  ways  of  speaking  to  men  and 
thereby  revealing  warnings  and  directions  for  human  life. 
They  are  not  blind  or  occult  forces,  such  as  men  invoke  by 
divination,  but  the  reasonable  work  of  a  single  mind  and  a 
justifiable  purpose  ;  hence  consistent  with  themselves  and 
meant  for  the  comprehension  of  men  (see  Amos  iii,  3-8). 

A  notable  feature  of  the  prophetic  utterance,  therefore, 
is  the  immense  part  that  nature  plays.  The  prophets  are 
the  earliest  and  greatest  poets  of  nature.  Not  only  the 
violent  and  exceptional  forces,  seemingly  so  arbitrary  and 
unguided,  —  such  as  earthquake,  volcanic  fires,  destructive 
storms,  blight  and  locusts,  devouring  worms,  pestilence 
(see,  for  example,  Joel  i,  2-ii,  14;  Amos  iv,  6-13;  vii,  1-9), 
—  but  the  regular  and  beneficent  powers  too,  the  fruitful 
round  of  seasons,  the  gentle  influences  of  sun  and  rain,  the 
response  of  nature  to  cultivation  (see,  for  example,  Hos.  ii, 
8-23  ;  Isa.  V,  I-/),  are  eloquent  of  Jehovah's  will  and  pur- 
pose. The  mind  of  God  is  thus  felt  as  intimately  inwoven 
with  nature,  making  its  aspects  the  reflection  of  the  spiritual 
condition  of  men  ;  so  that  in  the  more  highly  wrought  pas- 
sages nature  is  prophesied  as  smiling  and  fertile,  or  barren 
and  desolate,  according  to  the  prevailing  spirit  that  actuates 
the  inhabitants. 

1  Amos  iv,  13. 

[140] 


THE  STRESS   OF  PROPHECY 

Note.  See,  for  instance,  Isa.  xi,  6-9,  where  all  venomous  reptiles 
and  beasts  of  prey  are  figured  as  in  peaceful  harmony  with  the  wise 
and  beneficent  sway  of  the  "  shoot  out  of  the  stock  of  Jesse,"  —  a  state 
of  things  repeated  in  Isa.  Ixv,  25  ;  see  also  Isa.  xxxiv,  8-15,  where  utter 
desolation  and  barrenness  are  predicated  of  a  land  (Edom)  wherein  blood 
feud  and  the  spirit  of  cruelty  hold  sway. 

In  the  world  of  human  affairs,  Hkevvise,  where  are  devas- 
tating wars  and  mysterious  movements  of  empire,  Jehovah 
Attitude  is  still  the  Director  and  Wielder,  choosing  and 
towardHis-    ^^[^cr  his  fitting  agcucies,   making   men's  small 

toncalMove-  ^  &      &  >  & 

ments  purposes  work  out  his  great  one.    All  this  comes 

to  light  in  a  gradually  enlarging  view,  of  which  all  the 
prophets  are  in  greater  or  less  degree  aware.  The  brutal 
Assyrian  power,  coming  upon  Israel  so  resistlessly,  is  inter- 
preted and  limited  as  an  instrument  of  Jehovah's  purpose 
(Isa.  X,  5-19;  xxxvii,  28,  29);  the  hmits  of  Nebuchad- 
nezzar's power,  under  whom  the  people  of  the  kingdom 
of  Judah  were  subdued  and  carried  into  exile,  are  predicted 
and  bounded  (Jer.  li,  34,  44)  ;  the  later  more  humane  and 
civilizing  function  of  Cyrus  is  approved  and  supported  (Isa. 
xliv,  28-xlv,  7).  In  a  word,  the  prophets  are  conforming 
their  thought  and  imagery  not  to  the  provincial  scale 
of  Palestine  but  to  the  universal  scale  of  the  world.  As 
prophecy  goes  on,  too,  it  becomes  as  limitless  in  time  as  in 
space.  It  forecasts  a  range  and  height  of  conditions  which 
must  needs  require  all  history  and  all  time  to  make  eternal 
(Isa.  ii,  2-4;  Ixv,  17-25). 

As  the  message  of  the  prophets  was  rather  to  nations 
than  to  individuals,  their  conception  of  character  is  in  the 
Large  Units  absolute  and  in  the  mass, — a  whole  nation's  traits 
of  Character  q^  once.  The  nation  or  race,  with  the  large  re- 
sultant of  its  inherited  and  cultivated  traits,  was  its  unit  of 
character  ;  its  fortunes  and  destiny  those  of  an  organic  com- 
munity. The  religious  and  moral  principles  inculcated  are 
indeed  the  same  for  individual  and  nation  ;    but  it  is  with 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

the  kind  of  nation  that  the  sum  of  individual  traits  pro- 
duces, the  whole  nation  as  it  were  a  solidarity  and  com- 
posite personality,  that  the  prophets  are  concerned.  The 
Hebrew  race's  survival  and  mission  in  the  large  movements 
of  the  times,  accordingly,  depend  on  their  character  and 
stamina  as  a  people  educated  in  Jehovah's  ways  and 
molded  morally  to  his  will. 

This  solidarity  of  estimate  holds  for  other  nations  as 
truly  as  for  Israel.  The  various  nations  by  whom  they  were 
surrounded,  with  the  type  of  character  impressed  on  them 
by  history  and  culture,  were  to  the  prophets  like  persons 
in  a  great  world  drama.  They  were  individualized  and 
judged  accordingly  ;  much  as  in  modern  thought  we  esti- 
mate the  French  or  Teutonic  or  Celtic  type  of  character. 
There  was  Moab  with  its  aristocratic  pride  ;  Edom  with  its 
heartless  inhumanity ;  Tyre  with  its  trafficking  commercial 
spirit ;  Assyria  with  its  brutal  arrogance ;  Babylonia  with 
the  "  exactress  "  spirit  of  its  ancient  culture ;  Egypt  with 
its  craftiness  and  its  inefficiency.  All  these  were  organic 
communal  forces  which  Jehovah  was  wielding  to  his  will 
and  purpose.  The  prophets  were  keen  and  penetrative  stu- 
dents of  their  neighbor  nationalities,  and  knew  their  heredi- 
tary and  developed  traits.  A  considerable  proportion  of  the 
work  of  the  three  leading  literary  prophets,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah, 
and  Ezekiel,  is  devoted  to  oracles  on  the  nations  (Isa.  xiii- 
xxiii ;  Jer.  xlvi-li ;  Ezek.  xxv-xxxii)  ;  their  fate,  with  that 
of  Israel,  being  also  a  matter  of  intimate  concern  to  Jehovah. 
Even  Amos  the  herdsman  prophet,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
era  of  prophetic  stress,  shows  his  acquaintance  with  national 
origins,  and  scores  their  sins  against  humanity  as  one  who 
has  followed  their  history  and  temperament  (Amos  ix,  7  ; 
i,  3-ii,  8). 

In  the  midst  of  these  nations,  its  destiny  vitally  inwoven 
with  theirs,  the  little  Hebrew  nation  must  needs  maintain 
its  own  racial  type  of  culture  and  character  intact,  so  that  it 

[142] 


THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 

can  hold  its  own  and  fulfill  its  unique  mission  in  the  move- 
ment of  the  ages.  To  this  object  the  prophets,  in  singleness 
Th  H  b  ^^  spirit  and  aim,  conform  their  warnings  and 
Fidelity  to  promises.  They  have  for  Israel  an  ideal  of  com- 
^^^  munal  integrity,  of  civic  and  social  righteousness; 

which  ideal  must  be  held  clear  and  strong  before  the  people, 
and  to  which  they  must  be  brought  back  from  all  their  per- 
verseness  and  errors.  As  their  standard  of  life  was  higher 
than  that  of  any  other  nation,  so  it  was  of  corresponding 
moment  that  they  be  held  sternly  to  it,  in  order  to  be,  as 
a  prophet  expresses  it,  "an  ensign  of  the  peoples"  (see 
Isa.  xi,  lo,  12  ;  xlix,  22  ;  Ixii,  10). 

Hence  the  prophets'  prevailing  tone  of  rebuke  and  judg- 
ment. As  we  read  their  utterances  superficially,  reproof  and 
correction  seems  the  dominating  note  ;  and  the  boon  held 
out  to  the  people  is  not  that  of  glory  and  ascendancy  in  the 
earth  but  of  penitence  and  return  to  Jehovah.  In  their  view, 
as  Israel  must  evolve  a  type  of  character  for  the  spiritual 
uses  of  the  world,  so  this  must  be  correspondingly  thorough 
and  _  morally  sound.  "You  only  have  I  known  of  all  the 
families  of  the  earth,"  was  Jehovah's  word  to  them  through 
Amos  ;  "  therefore  I  will  visit  upon  you  all  your  iniquities  " 
(Amos  iii,  2), 

III 

The  Forecast  in  Joel.  From  these  general  considerafions 
of  the  prophetic  style  we  return  now  to  the  historic  and 
prophetic  situation  with  which  the  literary  prophets  deal. 
As  we  have  seen,  they  are  working  in  the  dim  presage  of 
an  impending  world  movement,  in  which  Israel  is  to  play 
a  momentous  though  hidden  part.  As  preparation  for  this, 
the  nation  must  pass  through  a  searching  ordeal :  must  suffer 
from  invasions  and  cruel  wrongs  on  the  part  of  the  stronger 
nations,  must  experience  the  break-up  of  their  state  and  the 
evils  of  exile,  must  endure  outrage  of  injustice  which  will 

[143] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

seem  to  make  their  allegiance  to  Jehovah  a  futile  thing. 
Yet  out  of  it  all  will  come  some  destiny  nobler  than  could 
otherwise  be  (cf.  Hab.  i,  5).  The  prophetic  foregight  of  this 
strange  experience  comes  but  gradually,  each  successive 
prophet  having  a  presage  only  of  the  next  stage  ;  but  along 
with  this  progress  of  prophecy  comes  by  degrees  the  sense 
that  it  is  to  be  not  only  an  ordeal  to  be  weathered  but  an 
opportunity  to  be  seized  and  turned  to  good.  It  takes  a  long 
period  of  prophetic  education  to  forecast  and  interpret  the 
successive  stages  of  this  national  experience ;  each  prophet 
contributing  his  share  as  fitting  the  existing  situation. 

One  prophet  there  is,  however,  who,  taking  occasion  of 
a  destructive  scourge  of  nature,  announces  that  "the  'day 
of  Jehovah  is  at  hand,"  and  draws  a  presage  of  the  larger 
design  of  God,  from  the  mysterious  present  judgment  to 
the  divine  purpose  far  beyond.  It  is  the  prophet  Joel.  We 
know  nothing  of  him,  except  that  he  is  called  "Joel,  the 
son  of  Pethuel  "  ;  nor  of  the  date  of  his  book.  The  opinion 
of  critics  is  divided  as  to  whether  he  is  the  earliest  or  the 
latest  of  the  literary  prophets,  the  majority  holding  that  he 
is  late.  My  opinion  is  that  he  is  the  earliest  of  them  ;  that 
he  was  a  native  of  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  prophesying  a 
few  years  before  Amos.  The  purport  of  his  message  is 
the  same,  whatever  period  we  assign  him  to ;  but  it  seems 
better  to  fit  the  times  soon  after  the  death  of  Elisha.  He 
is  a  kind  of  herald  prophet,  who  in  brief  outline  gives,  so 
to  say,  a  broad  program  of  Jehovah's  progressive  design  in 
the  momentous  crisis  now  impending. 

A  tremendous  plague  of  locusts,  such  as  the  oldest  in- 
habitants have  never  seen  or  heard  of,  has  ravaged  the 
The  Locust  land,  destroying  all  the  vegetation,  so  that  even 
Scourge  ^j-^g  offering  of  grains  and  fruits  for  the  Temple 
fails.  The  prophet  uses  this  as  the  cue  of  his  message  ; 
describing  in  realistic  details  the  widespread  desolation  and 
distress  it  Has  wrought,  and   calling  on   the   priests  of  the 

[  144  J 


THE  STRESS   OF  PROPHECY 

Temple  to  gather  the  people  for  fasting  and  lamentation. 
From  the  situation  of  unrelieved  woe  thus  occasioned,  he 
goes  on  in  the  second  chapter  to  reveal  its  meanings :  it  is  the 
sign  of  the  day  of  Jehovah,  "great  and  very  terrible"  (ii,  1 1). 
The  locust  invasion  is  then  described  realistically,  but  with 
details  which  apply  to  invading  armies  as  well  as  locusts  ; 
thus  intimating  in  what  way  Israel's  trial  is  to  come.  It  is 
a  veiled  prediction  of  the  coming  of  Assyrian  hosts,  who 
had  already  made  repeated  invasions  of  pillage  and  conquest 
as  far  west  as  Damascus,  and  had  laid  many  of  the  smaller 
kingdoms  under  tribute.  The  plague  of  locusts,  coming  at 
this  time,  thus  gave  realism  to  a  calamity  which  a  political 
as  well  as  spiritual  insight  would  see  must  sooner  or  later 
fall  upon  Jehovah's  people. 

From  this  attitude  of  unrelieved  dejection  the  prophet 
makes  a  brave  transition  to  a  tone  of  hopefulness  and 
The  Contrite  promise.  With  an  exhortation  to  his  people  to 
Response  jyj-n  to  Jehovah  in  sincere  penitence,  "  rending 
their  hearts  and  not  their  garments"  (ii,  13),  he  bids  them 
make  trial  of  his  disposition  of  mercy,  to  see  if  he  will 
not  turn  away  the  evil.  From  this  experimental  stage  he 
passes  to  a  confident  tone  of  promise,  predicting  a  later 
restoration  of  fruitfulness  and  plenty,  in  which  "  the  north- 
erner "  (ii,  20)  ^  will  be  removed  far  off,  and  the  people,  the 
losses  from  the  locust  scourge  fully  made  up,  will  no  longer 
be  a  reproach  among  the  nations.  It  is  a  description  of  the 
first  stage  in  a  truly  spiritual  service  of  Jehovah,  and  its 
immediate  result.  A  greater  result,  however,  is  yet  to  come. 
After  the  people  are  reinstated  in  the  joy  of  restored  com- 
fort and  prosperity,  there  will  come  an  era  of  spiritual  new 
energy  in  which  all  classes  will  share  ;  "your  sons  and  your 
daughters  shalf  prophesy,  your  old  men  shall  dream  dreams, 

1  It  will  be  noted  that  the  word  "  army,"  being  in  italics,  indicates  thus 
that  it  is  supplied  by  the  translators  ;  the  word  "  northern,"  in  fact,  stands 
alone,  implying  any  scourge  that  comes  by  way  of  the  north;  of.  Jer.  i,  14. 

[MS] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

your  young  men  shall  see  visions  :  and  also  upon  the  serv- 
ants and  upon  the  handmaids  in  those  days  will  I  pour 
out  my  Spirit  "  (ii,  28,  29).  This  prophecy,  it  will  be  re- 
membered,, was  cited  by  St.  Peter  as  coming  to  fulfillment 
at  Pentecost  after  the  ascension  of  Jesus  (Acts  ii,  16-18). 
Such  is  the  inner  enlightenment  and  strength  by  which  the 
prophet  will  fortify  his  people  to  bear  the  portents  of  the 
day  of  Jehovah  ;  and  a  deliverance  will  be  provided  for 
those  who  call  on  him,  "  and  among  the  remnant  those 
whom  Jehovah  doth  call  "  (ii,  32), 

Then,  after  Israel  has  received  its  destined  spiritual  quick- 
ening and  energy,  will  come  a  time  of  reckoning,  when  all 
The  Valley  the  nations  that  have  ravaged  Israel  will  be  gath- 
of  Decision  gj-ed  together  in  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  called 
poetically  "  the  valley  of  decision."  Here  they  shall  know 
of  Jehovah's  will  and  of  his  avenging  might ;  and  as  they 
see  his  gracious  favor  to  his  own  chosen  people,  shall  see 
also  how  their  violent  and  heartless  deeds  recoil  on  their 
own  heads.  It  is  the  earliest  prophetic  prediction  of  a 
general  judgment  of  the  world,  —  a  prediction  that  belongs 
to  the  kind  of  prophecy  called  apocalyptic.  The  nations  are 
called  upon  to  prepare  for  this  decisive  judgment  as  if  for 
war,  bringing  forth  their  best  wisdom  and  courage  to  meet 
the  divine  ordeal.  "  Beat  your  plowshares  into  swords,"  the 
prophet  bids  them,  "and  your  pruning  hooks  into  spears; 
let  the  weak  say,  I  am  strong"  (iii,  10).  At  this  early 
stage  of  world  prophecy  the  prophet's  vision  is  only  broad 
enough  to  see  the  world  tested  by  war  ;  but  the  time  of 
more  peaceful  outlook  will  soon  come,  when  this  proverb 
will  be  reversed,  and  the  implements  of  war  will  be  turned 
into  implements  of  husbandry  (see  Isa.  ii,  4  ;   Mic.  iv,  3). 

Thus  in  this  preliminary  prophecy  of  Joel  *is  mapped  out 
in  comprehensive  terms  a  kind  of  chart  of  the  trying  expe- 
rience soon  to  come,  and  of  the  large  purpose  of  Jehovah. 
The  prophecy  is  uttered  in  Judah,  where  are  the  Tem})le  and 

[146] 


THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 

the  ordained  rites  of  communal  worship  ;  but  like  all  the 
prophets  he  thinks  of  all  Israel,  in  its  relation  to  Jehovah, 
as  one  undivided  family.  The  prophecy  is  unusual  in  that  it 
does  not  meet  the  people  with  an  invective  against  their 
sins  ;   it  is   expressed   in  terms   of  pity  and  mercy. 

Notes,  i.  The  Date  of  Joel.  It  is  the  more  prevalent  opinion  at 
present  that  Joel  is  late  among  the  prophets,  being,  as  is  thought,  about 
contemporary  with  Malachi  (cir.  500  B.C.).  The  opinion  is  founded  on 
considerations  which  seem  to  me  inconclusive.  From  the  general  tone 
of  the  prophetic  and  apocalyptic  ideas,  and  from  the  relation  of  his 
ideas  to  the  larger  situation  of  the  prophetic  era,  it  seems  to  me  rather 
that  he  is  the  pioneer  of  the  literary  prophets. 

2.  Apocalyptic  Elements  in  Joel.  The  word  "  apocalyptic,"  from  the 
Gr&ek apokalupsis.1  ''revelation,"  "disclosure,"  is  a  term  used  by  scholars 
to  denote  that  strain  of  prophecy  which  deals  with  the  final  aspects  of 
coming  events,  like  the  coming  of  a  golden  age,  or  a  time  of  judgment, 
or  the  disclosure  of  heaven :  prophecy  without  definite  reference  to 
conditioning  circumstances,  and  without  concrete  predictions  of  histori- 
cal events.  The  typical  apocalyptic  book  of  the  Old  Testament  is  the 
Book  of  Daniel,  which  is  largely  made  up  of  visions,  under  symbolic 
forms,  of  "a  coming  kingdom  of  heaven.  The  Book  of  Revelation, 
sometimes  called  the  Apocalypse,  is  a  New  Testament  book  in  the 
same  vein,  and  employing  some  of  Daniel's  imagery.  All  the  prophets, 
however,  have  passages  in  the  apocalyptic  consciousness :  it  belongs  to 
the  natural  enlargement  of  their  spiritual  sense  beyond  the  crises  and 
events  of  their  own  immediate  time.  Instances  of  such  passages  may 
be  found  in  Joel  iii,  14-17  ;  Isa.  ii,  2-4,  and  the  parallel  to  this  latter. 
Mic.  iv,  1-3  ;   Isa.  Ixv,  i  7  ;  Ixvi,  22-24. 


II,  In  the  Northern  Kingdom 

Ever  since  the  secession  of  the  ten  tribes  under  Jeroboam  I 
(933  B.C.),  prophetic  activity  had  been  more  prevalent  in  the 
northern  kingdom  than  in  the  southern.  Samuel,  the  father 
of  the  prophetic  order,  was  of  the  northern  tribe  of  Ephraim 
(i  Sam.  i,  I).  The  so-called  "sons  of  the  prophets"  (that 
is,  disciples  of  the  prophets)  are  mentioned  only  in  con- 
nection with  the  affairs  of  the  northern  kingdom.     In  that 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

kingdom  also,  besides  the  minor  prophetic  persons  who 
came  with  special  errands,  lived  the  great  personages  Elijah 
and  Elisha. 

The  reason  why  the  prophets  were  more  active  in  the 
northern  kingdom  than  in  the  southern  was  because  they 
were  more  needed  there.  Conditions  were  more  primitive. 
Religion  and  education  were  less  organized  and  stable ; 
principles  of  belief  and  conduct  less  defined  and  developed. 
In  the  southern  kingdom  were  the  temple  worship,  cen- 
tralized in  Jerusalem,  the  established  priesthood,  and  the 
state  under  the  dynasty  of  the  house  of  David  constitu- 
tionally committed  to  the  pure  service  of  Jehovah ;  and 
hence  the  people  in  general  had  a  more  established  order 
of  ideas  to  go  by.  In  the  northern  kingdom,  on  the  other 
hand,  as  ideas  were  less  defined  and  diffused,  more  depend- 
ence had  to  be  placed  on  direct  personal  guidance  ;  which 
the  prophets  supplied  as  national  emergencies  arose,  and 
which  the  sons  of  the  prophets  did  much  to  maintain.^ 

The  work  of  these  prophetic  masters  and  disciples,  mold- 
ing the  people's  mind  in  loyalty  to  Jehovah  and  cultivating 
an  educated  conscience  to  which  later  prophets  could  appeal, 
was  of  untold  importance.  By  their  personal  educative 
work  they  prepared  the  soil,  so  to  say,  for  the  word  of  the 
literary  prophets  ;  which  came  to  them  on  the  eve  of  their 
greatest  crisis,  a  few  years  before  their  kingdom  was  broken 
up  by  exile  and  foreign  dominance. 


Amos,  and  his  Prophecy  of  Judgment.  It  was  not  from 
their  own  prophets,  however,  that  the  first  prophetic  warn- 
ing came  to  the  northern  kingdom.  It  would  seem  that 
their  own  prophetic  order  had  become  so  much  a  perfunc- 
tory and  time-serving  thing,  so  subservient  to  the  corrupt 
public    sentiment,    that    no    warning    which    reproved    the 

1  See  above,  pp.  129-132. 
[148] 


THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 

nation's  iniquity  could  have  any  acceptance  (cf.  Amos  v,  lo  ; 
vii,  12,  13  ;  Hos.  iv,  5  ;  ix,  7,  8).  Prophets  and  priests 
ahke  were  as  bad  as  the  people  (cf.  Hos.  iv,  6,  9)  ;  and  the 
people  themselves,  in  this  prosperous  reign  of  Jeroboam  II, 
were  at  ease  and  heedless  in  civic  corruption  and  sensual 
life  (Amos  vi,  1-6  ;  cf.  Isaiah's  later  description,  Isa.  xxviii, 
1-8).  So  the  word  of  warning  and  denunciation  must  needs 
come  from  outside  ;  and  it  came  from  the  neighbor  kingdom 
of  Judah,  where  the  moral  standards  were  higher  and  more 
authoritative,  and  where  the  name  "  Zion  "  still  counted  as 
a  spiritual  center  for  the  word  of  Jehovah  (Amos  i,  2  ;  cf, 
Joel  iii,  16). 

This  warning,  which  was  first  given  orally,  we  have  as  it 
was  afterward  written  out,  in  what  is  called,  "  The  words 
of  Amos,  who  was  among  the  herdsmen  of  Tekoa,  which 
he  saw  concerning  Israel  "  (Amos  i,  i).  Tekoa  was  an  out- 
lying town,  or  rather  region,  on  the  hills  of  Judah,  about 
twelve  miles  south  of  Jerusalem.  Amos  does  not  come  offi- 
cially, as  if  sent  by  his  government  or  its  priests  (vii,  14, 
15);  for  he  represents  that  Judah  itself  is  involved  in  the 
same  apostate  tendencies,  and  has  little  right  to  dictate 
(ii;  4,  5).  Still,  the  word  he  brings  is  identified  with 
Jerusalem,  the  recognized  spiritual  capital  of  all  Israel 
(cf.  Jer.  XXV,  30,  31),  whence  judgment  is  decreed  for 
all  nations. 

Amos's  prophecy  dates  from  about  754  b.c,  some  twenty- 
eight  years  before  the  fall  of  the  northern  kingdom.  The 
HA  a  -  specific  note  of  time  given  is  "  two  years  before 
ancein  the   earthquake"    (Amos   i,  i),   a  disaster  which 

^*  ^  was  long  remembered  for  its  severity  (see  Zech. 

xiv,  5),  but  which  apparently  was  not  taken  as  a  warning 
from  Jehovah  (cf.  Isa.  ix,  9,  10).  The  prophecy  came  just 
when  both  Israel  and  Judah  were  at  the  height  of  the  great- 
est prosperity  they  had  ever  enjoyed.  Thus  it  was  like  light- 
ning from  a  clear  sky,  uttered  while  the  Assyrian  danger 

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was  still  so  remote  that  Amos  himself  did  not  give  its  spe- 
cific name,  but  warned  the  people  that  Jehovah  would  cause 
them  "to  go  into  captivity  beyond  Damascus"  (v,  27). 

His  sudden  appearance,  apparently  on  a  festal  occasion, 
in  Bethel,  the  royal  sanctuary  town  of  Israel,  was  rather 
sensational,  and  must  have  seemed  rude  and  uncouth  to 
the  gay  crowds,  as  the  appearance  of  Elijah  had  been  a  cen- 
tury before.  But  when,  after  predicting  that  the  sanctuaries 
would  be  laid  waste  (vii,  9),  he  went  on  to  say  that  Jehovah 
would  "'  rise  up  against  the  house  of  Jeroboam  with  the 
sword,"  he  was  reported  to  the  king  by  Amaziah  the  priest 
of  Bethel  as  a  conspirator,  and  with  loide  words  sent  back 
to  his  own  land  (vii,  10-13).  Thus  the  prophecy  which  as 
oral  preaching  was  interrupted  and  scorned  had  to  be  pre- 
served by  writing ;  and  we  have  it  as  a  literary  production, 
written  several  years  afterward. 

In  thus  coming  over  from  the  sister  kingdom  and  warn- 
ing Israel,  Amos  disclaims  connection  with  any  organization 
His  Prophetic  ^vhich  Can  either  support  or  modify  his  word 
Credentials  (^[[^  j^)^  He  is  not  of  the  order  of  the  prophets, 
either  as  leader  or  disciple.  He  is  not,  as  his  hearers  inti- 
mate, prophesying  for  hire  or  for  a  living  (vii,  12).  He  is 
not  beholden  to  king  or  government  or  man.  His  call  and 
message  are  immediately  from  Jehovah.  As  a  herdsman 
and  fruit  cultivator  he  has  gathered  his  convictions  on  the 
rugged  hills  of  Tekoa,  in  immediate  communion  with  nature 
(cf.  V,  7,  8),  and  in  meditation  on  the  history  of  his  and 
surrounding  peoples  (cf.  i,  ii,  ix,  7)  and  on  the  movements 
of  empire.  His  prophecy  shows  a  remarkable  breadth  of 
outlook  and  depth  of  insight,  as  well  as  purity  and  vigor 
of  language  ;  an  evidence  of  the  culture  to  which  a  man  of 
the  people  could  attain  in  this  age  of  the  Hebrew  state. 
It  throws  light  also  on  the  mind  of  the  great  prophets  as 
a  class.  They  were  men  who,  in  their  intimate  realization 
of  Jehovah's  nature  and  will,   felt  also  his  purpose  in  the 

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THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 

spiritual  pulse-beat  of  humanity  and  their  own  nation's 
relation  thereto  (iii,  i-8). 

The  tone  of  Amos's  prophecy  is  stern  and  denunciatory. 
He  inveighs  against  the  prevalent  heartlessness,  injustice, 
and  sensuality  which  are  sapping  the  character 
mentand  '  of  the  nation  (v,  10-13;  viii,  4-7):  the  greed, 
Presage  dishonesty,  and  cruelty  of  the  powerful  classes 
on  the  one  hand ;  the  shameless  debauchery  of  the  luxurious 
classes  on  the  other  (vi,  1-8)  ;  and  hints  what  a  contrast 
this  is  to  the  old  heroic  days  (ii,  6-12).  With  such  corrup- 
tion of  morals  all  their  elaborateness  of  ritual  and  formal 
worship  is  worse  than  worthless  before  Jehovah  (v,  21-27), 
is  abomination  to  him  ;  and  the  coming  day  of  Jehovah, 
which  is  to  this  day  as  effect  to  cause,  will  be  darkness 
instead  of  light  (v,  18-20), 

Such  is  the  gist  of  his  indictment,  given  mostly  in  literal 
and  exceedingly  trenchant  terms.  Then  in  a  final  series  of 
illustrative  figures  he  puts  the  summary  of  it,  with  its  pur- 
pose, in  symbolic  form.  The  first  of  these  is  a  vision  of 
Jehovah  standing  by  a  wall  with  a  plumb  line  (vii,  7-9)  — 
a  symbol  of  the  standard  of  righteousness  essential  to  the 
welfare  and  survival  of  a  nation.  It  is  his  interpretation  of 
this  vision  which  causes  the  priest  Amaziah  to  accuse  him 
of  treason  and  to  send  him  back  to  Tekoa  (vii,  10-13), 
Then  follows,  secondly,  a  vision  of  a  basket  of  summer 
fruit  (viii,  1-3);  from  which  he  gathers  the  lesson:  "The 
end  is  come  upon  my  people  Israel."  The  symbolism  of 
this  is  not  clear  to  us  who  read  Amos  in  translation  ;  be- 
cause he  draws  the  lesson  not  so  much  by  essential  signifi- 
cance as  by  wordplay,  —  as  the  words  for  "summer  fruit" 
{kaits)  and  "  end  "  {kets)  are  in  Hebrew  almost  identical  in 
form  ;  —  still,  the  ripeness  and  rottenness  of  summer  fruit 
may  be  connoted.  This  is  followed,  thirdly  (ix,  9),  by 
a  strong  figure  which,  though  still  severe  and  searching, 
contains  a  promise  that  compensates  for  the  warning  and 

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gives  its  ultimate  purpose.  It  is  the  figure  of  the  sifting  of 
grain.  "  For  lo,  I  will  command,  and  I  will  sift  the  house 
of  Israel  among  all  the  nations,  like  as  grain  is  sifted  in 
a  sieve,  yet  shall  not  the  least  kernel  fall  upon  the  earth," 
This  reveals  the  large  and  in  the  end  beneficent  ideal  that 
forms  the  background  of  the  general  prophetic  message. 
By  all  their  threats  and  warnings,  severe  as  these  are,  the 
prophets  are  preparing  for  Israel  a  noble  destiny. 

II 

Hosea,  and  his  Sense  of  Outraged  Love.  Amos  came  to 
Israel,  as  Elijah  before  him  had  come,  from  another  part 
of  the  country,  pronouncing  doom  like  a  stern  and  unpity- 
ing  judge  ;  and  he  went  his  way  again  as  a  stranger,  having 
apparently  gained  only  scorn  and  contempt.  Soon  after  his 
mission  was  over,  however,  he  was  succeeded  by  another 
prophet,  Hosea,  a  man  of  very  different  point  of  view  and 
temperament.  As  one  born  and  bred  among  the  people, 
familiar  with  their  inherited  customs  and  character,  Hosea 
felt  with  intimate  realization  their  condition  as  from  within. 

He  attacks  the  same  prevalent  evils  as  did  Amos  ;  pre- 
dicts the  same  doom  of  national  dissolution  and  dispersion. 
His  indictment,  indeed,  is  even  more  severe  than  Amos's. 
But  unlike  his  predecessor  he  speaks  in  the  spirit  not  of 
austerity  and  judgment  but  of  love  and  entreaty.  "  How 
shall  I  give  thee  up,  Ephraim  ?  how  shall  I  cast  thee  off, 
Israel  ?  "  (xi,  8)  —  such  is  the  undertone  of  his  prophecy. 
The  phases  of  national  and  social  iniquity  which  come  home 
most  poignantly  to  him  are  such  as  correspond  to  this  lov- 
ing, yearning  nature.  As  Amos  has  inveighed  against  the 
high-handed  wrongs  and  greed  which  are  evident  to  the 
world,  Hosea  feels  the  evil  of  the  more  inward  vices : 
the  prevalent  falseness  and  licentiousness,  the  spiritual 
ignorance,  the  social  rottenness  and  consequent  decay  of  all 
that  is  sound  and  manly  in  character. 

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THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 

Hosea's  prophetic  career  dates  from  near  the  end  of  the 
reign  of  Jeroboam  II — that  is,  from  about  745  b.c.  —  and 
HisDisor-  extends  to  about  736  b.c,  or  some  fifteen  years 
dered  Times  before  the  downfall  of  Samaria.  It  began  while 
still  the  nation,  as  in  the  time  of  Amos's  prophesying, 
was  in  its  careless  and  luxurious  prosperity.  But  when,  in 
740  B.C.,  Jeroboam  died,  the  moral  rottenness  and  weak- 
ness of  Israel  came  to  the  surface  in  a  period  of  violence 
and  anarchy.  "'  No  sooner  was  he  dead,"  says  a  modern 
account,  "than  alT  the  faults  of  administration  and  sources 
of  weakness  which  his  pomp  had  disguised  became  evident, 
and  suddenly  the  death-throes  of  Israel  began."  ^  In  the 
course  of  the  succeeding  eighteen  years  Israel  had  six 
kings,  several  of  whom  were  assassinated  by  usurpers  ;  and 
those  who  could  keep  their  throne  for  a  little  while  had  to 
buy  off  the  encroaching  power  of  Assyria  by  paying  enor- 
mous tribute.  Meanwhile  attempts  were  made  to  gain  the 
alliance  and  help  of  Egypt;  which  only  made  matters  worse, 
and  revealed  the  confused  state  that  the  mind  of  the  nation 
was  in,  wholly  unworthy  of  a  people  chosen  of  Jehovah 
(cf.  vii,  II).  They  were  not  lacking  in  desperate  bravery 
when  the  actual  siege  of  their  capital  came  ;  their  lack  was 
rather  of  the  wisdom,  the  poise,  the  stamina,  which  a  loyal 
and  intelligent  service  of  their  God  would  have  engendered. 

It  was  during  this  turbulent  and  anarchic  time  that  all 
the  latter  part  of  Hosea's  prophecy  was  uttered  ;  and  the 
How  his  very  style  of  his  prophecy,  crowded,  abrupt,  un- 
Rdfects^the  Organized,  reflects  the  anomalous  situation.  Both 
Situation  his  literal  utterances  and  his  figures  are  full  of 
this  quality.  '"  My  people  are  destroyed,"  he  says,  '"  for 
lack  of  knowledge  "  (iv,  6).  "  Ephraim  is  like  a  silly  dove, 
without  understanding ;  they  call  unto  Egypt,  they  go  to 
Assyria"  (vii,  11),  —  falling  helplessly  into  the  clutches  of 
the  arrogant  outer  kingdoms,  as  a  dove  flutters  into  a  trap. 

1  Westphal  and  Du  Pontet,  "The  Law  and  the  Prophets,"  p.  286. 

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'"  Ephraim,  he  mixeth  among  the  peoples ;  Ephraim  is  a 
cake  not  turned"  (vii,  8),  —  a  striking  image  of  an  in- 
consistent, unformed  character,  burnt  to  crisp  on  one  side 
and  raw  dough  on  the  other.  And  the  cause  of  it  all,  to 
the  prophet's  mind,  is  that  senseless  proclivity  to  idolatry 
which  bewilders  and  debases  the  idea  and  service  of  God. 
"Ephraim  is  joined  to  idols,"  he  says;  "let  him  alone" 
(iv,  17).  These  and  many  other  utterances,  expressed  often 
in  very  telling  figures,  go  to  make  up  the  prophet's  descrip- 
tion of  an  enfeebled  and  degenerate  national  character,  unfit 
to  hold  its  own  and  maintain  a  worthy  manhood  among  the 
heathen  nations  of  the  earth. 

And  yet  all  this  is  said  with  utmost  tenderness  by 
Hosea,  preeminently  the  prophet  of  love.  '"  My  heart  is 
„.   -  turned   within   me,   my  compassions   are   kindled 

His  Lesson  . 

from  Expe-  together  "  (xi,  8),  he  says  in  bitterness  of  grief, 
nence  -^^^  does  he  leave   his   people  without  pointing 

out  a  way  upward  from  their  apostasy  and  degradation, 
though  at  the  cost  of  exile  and  dispersion.  They  were  to 
be  punished,  in  a  way  that  would  reveal  the  meaning  of 
their  sin,  but  the  punishment  would  be  remedial.  This 
oracle  he  gives  them  through  the  fundamental  figure  under 
which  he  conceives  of  their  relation  to  Jehovah  —  a  figure 
drawn  from  his  own  domestic  experience. 

Hosea  had  married  a  wife  who  soon  after  marriage  proved 
an  adulteress.  Like  Isaiah  after  him,  he  gave  to  the  chil- 
dren of  this  union  names  in  the  meaning  of  which  his 
prophetic  message  was  symbolized.  To  the  first,  born  while 
his  wife  was  still  faithful,  he  gave  the  name  "  Jezrcel,"  sig- 
nificant both  for  past  history  and  future  destiny  ;  for  Jezreel 
was  the  city  where  bloody  deeds  had  been  committed  calling 
for  vengeance  (i,  4)  ;  but  also  its  meaning,  "  whom  God 
hath  sown,"  was  significant  of  the  dispersion  that  awaited 
the  nation.  "  I  will  sow  her  unto  me  in  the  earth,"  he  says 
later  (ii,  23),  not  in  severity  but  in  promise. 

[X54] 


THE  STRESS   OF  PROPHECY 

To  the  second  and  third  children,  born  illegitimately,  he 
gave  the  names  Lo-Ruhamah,  "unpitied,"  and  Lo-Ammi, 
"no  kin  of  mine";  significant  alike  of  their  detachment 
from  his  paternity  and  of  the  people's  apostasy  from  Jeho- 
vah. Later  the  wife  left  him,  becoming  a  common  harlot, 
going  lower  and  lower  in  infamy  until  she  was  sold  into 
slavery.  His  affection  for  her,  however,  did  not  cease.  It 
was  intensified,  rather,  by  her  hapless  condition.  He  bought 
her  back,  and  after  a  fitting  season  of  seclusion  restored  her 
to  his  home  and  family. 

From  this  domestic  experience  Rosea  deduced  one  of  the 
most  tender  prophetic  revelations  of  all  time.  In  his  own 
heart,  remaining  so  true  and  steadfast  in  spite  of  outraged 
affection,  he  read  a  foTtiori  the  unchanging  love  of  Jehovah 
for  his  people.  If  Rosea,  a  man,  could  so  suffer  and  for- 
give, much  more  could  God.  So  this  inner  experience  be- 
came for  him  thenceforth  the  speaking  symbol  of  relations 
in  Israel.  They  too,  in  their  infatuation  for  idolatrous  wor- 
ship, had  wandered  off  after  the  nature  gods  whom  they 
deemed  the  givers  of  their  fertility  and  prosperity ;  and 
they  must  be  made  to  know  by  stern  experience  of  exile 
and  seclusion  what  was  the  spiritual  consequence  of  idolatry 
and  who  was  the  real  Source  of  their  blessings.  Jehovah 
had  loved  and  cared  for  them  with  the  tenderness  of  a 
husband.  They  had  the  home,  the  protection,  the  comforts 
granted  a  wife.  But  they  had  chosen  to  debauch  their  spirit 
with  paramours  ;  and  barrenness  and  slavery  must  be  their 
natural  doom  (cf.  ix,  14).  They  must  be  banished  from  their 
pleasant  land  to  the  wilderness  ;  must  be  scattered  among 
the  nations,  until  again  they  were  fit  for  the  home  and 
household  of  Jehovah. 

From  Rosea's  time  onward  this  figure  of  Jehovah's  rela- 
tion to  his  people  as  a  marriage  relation,  and  of  their  apos- 
tasy as  the  unfaithfulness  of  a  false  wife,  became  a  staple 
image  in  the  prophets.     It  is  applied  afterward  to  Judah 

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by  Jeremiah  and  by  the  Second  Isaiah  (Jer.  iii,  i  ;  Isa.  liv, 
4-8  ;  Ixii,  4,  5  ;  cf.  i,  21  ;  Mic.  i,  7)  ;  to  Jerusalem,  and  to 
both  Jerusalem  and  Samaria  by  Ezekiel  (Ezek.  xvi  and  xxiii). 

Yet  along  with  the  prophecy  of  doom  are  hints  and  hopes 
of  better  things  to  succeed.  It  is  Israel's  destiny,  foretold 
His  Presage  fiom  old  time,  to  be  "as  the  sand  of  the  sea 
of  Hope  for  multitude"  (i,  10  ;  cf.  Gen.  xxii,  17)  ;  and  if 

scattered,  as  the  name  "  Jezreel  "  indicates,  yet  the  scattering 
may  be  a  sowing  and  the  precursor  of  harvests.  It  is  this 
destiny  which  the  prophet  seems  to  presage  for  Israel.  At 
the  time  of  their  deportation  (722  b.c.)  this  kingdom  of 
Israel  disappears  from  history ;  and  much  conjecture  has 
been  made  by  scholars  —  and  near-scholars  —  as  to  what 
became  of  the  lost  ten  tribes.  "  I  will  sow  her  unto  me  in 
the  earth"  (ii,  23)  is  Jehovah's  word  to  them  ;  as  if  Israel, 
brought  by  dispersion  to  the  better  mind,  were  somehow  to 
remain  integral  in  character,  and  be  the  seed  of  a  better 
civilization. 

The  v/ords  in  which  he  sums  up  the  forecast  of  their 
destiny  have  a  kind  of  apocalyptic  strain,  like  the  oracles 
of  Joel  and  Isaiah.  They  prophesy  a  far-off  event  which 
can  be  understood  not  in  political  or  literal  but  only  in 
spiritual  terms,  —  the  finality  which  was  dimly  before  all 
the  prophets,  but  which  each  one  apprehended  according  to 
the  ruling  ideas  of  his  age.  "  For  the  children  of  Israel," 
he  says,  "  shall  abide  many  days  without  king  and  without 
prince,  and  without  sacrifice,  and  without  pillar,  and  without 
ephod  or  teraphim  :  afterward  shall  the  children  of  Israel 
return,  and  seek  Jehovah  their  God,  and  David  their  king, 
and  shall  come  with  fear  unto  Jehovah  and  to  his  goodness 
in  the  latter  days  "  (iii,  4,  5).  The  whole  final  chapter  (xiv) 
is  in  this  tone. 


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THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 

III.    In  the  Southern  Kingdom 

As  the  downfall  of  the  northern  kingdom  approached, 
the  preliminary  disturbances  were  not  unfelt  by  its  sister 
state,  the  kingdom  of  Judah.  That  kingdom  also,  indeed, 
directly  or  indirectly,  was  shaken  to  its  center  by  the  As- 
syrian invasions,  and  in  moral  stamina  was  as  ill  prepared 
to  meet  them  as  was  its  northern  neighbor.  With  the  vast 
world  movements  in  progress,  wherein  the  petty  tribal  states 
were  gradually  being  absorbed  in  the  great  empires,  a  similar 
doom  for  Judah  in  her  turn  could  only  be  a  question  of 
time.  And  that  the  same  doubtful  policy  toward  the  great 
powers  was  prevalent  there  as  Hosea  had  denounced  in 
Israel  may  be  seen  in  such  chapters  as  Isaiah  xxviii  and 
XXX  ;  '  wherein  the  great  'prophet  of  Judah  draws  a  direct 
lesson  for  his  people  from  the  headstrong  folly  of  the 
northern   kingdom. 


A  Postponement  of  Doom.  But  Judah 's  time  before  her 
ordeal  of  actual  exile  was  postponed  for  a  century  and  a 
quarter  more  ;  and  from  the  literary  and  prophetic  products 
of  the  period  that  intervened  we  can  understand  why.  It 
was  Judah's  providential  duty,  as  we  have  seen,  to  set  the 
moral  and  cultural  standard  for  the  whole  family  of  Israel ; 
and  she  had  been  too  heedless  of  her  trust,  too  recreant 
to  her  responsibility  (see  Amos  ii,  4,  5  ;  Hos.  xii,  2). 
There  was  much  educational  development  yet  needed,  much 
training  in  the  first  principles  of  truth  and  righteousness, 
before  the  southern  kingdom  could  be  ready  to  meet  her 
doom.  For  it  must  be  remembered  that  her  distinctive 
destiny  lay  beyond  the  break-up  of  an  independent  state. 
This  was  only  a  preliminary,  only  a  necessary  step,  toward 
something  else.  Her  real  destiny  was  rather  to  be  enlarge- 
ment, through  transplantation,  to  a  momentous  mission  for 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

humanity.  It  was  for  this  that  unawares  to  herself  she 
was  in  the  large  sense  undergoing  preparation. 

Herein  we  see  the  difference  in  the  destinies-  of  the  two 
kingdoms.  Israel,  the  northern  people,  with  its  more  devel- 
oped cosmopolitan  sense,  was  to  be  "  sown  to  Jehovah  in 
the  earth  "  (Hos.  ii,  23),  the  hidden  seed  and  leaven  of  a 
more  sterling  type  of  character  among  the  nations  ;  but  the 
vague  prophecies  of  its  restoration  do  not  imply  a  restored 
state  (cf.  Amos  v,  14,  i  5  ;  ix,  9-1 1  ;  Hos.  i,  1 1  ;  xi,  9-1 1  ; 
xiv,  4-8).  It  was  rather  to  work  out  its  destiny  as  a  people 
dispersed  yet  still  faithful  to  type.  Judah,  on  the  other 
hand,  though  she  is  to  be  exiled  in  the  same  way,  is  to  re- 
main organically  intact,  and  in  course  of  time  to  be  again 
in  her  own  land  a  center  of  enlightenment  and  sanitv  of 
conscience  to  the  world  (cf.  Isa.  ii,  2-4  ;  Mic.  iv,  1-3  ; 
Isa.  xlix,  5-7  ;  Ix).  In  other  words,  in  the  general  leveling 
movement  of  empire,  wherein  as  in  a  huge  melting  pot  the 
provincial  tribes  and  their  grotesque  little  gods  disappear,  it 
is  this  small  nation  alone  whose  God  and  whose  law  of  life 
are  destined  to  survive  and  be  permanent.  The  subjugation 
and  exile  of  this  people  are  not  to  be  their  destruction  but 
their  opportunity  ;  and  hence  their  preparation  for  so  mo- 
mentous a  destinv  must  be  sound  and  vital  to  correspond. 

Accordingly,  from  the  overthrow  of  the  northern  king- 
dom on,  the  field  of  prophetic  activity  is  transferred  to  the 

remaining  state  of  Judah.     It  is  not  to  be  sup- 
The  Trans-  i     i  •  i  i  i  i 

fer,  and  the  posed  that  either  prophets  or  people  can  see  the 
Averted  pjifj  qj-  i\^q  deep  meaning  of  so  great  a  destiny 
at  once.  The  prophets  can  only  see  and  take  the 
next  step  —  steering  the  nation's  character  and  ideals  in 
a  way  that  will  eventually  come  out  so.  To  this  end  they 
must  act  both  as  statesmen  and  as  religious  and  moral 
teachers,  the  two  functions  being  in  their  view  inseparable. 
When  the  northern  kingdom  fell,  the  kingdom  of  Judah, 
to  which   hitherto   it  had   been   a   kind  of   buffer  state,   lay 

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THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 

open  in  its  turn  to  Assyrian  encroachment  and  invasion. 
The  evil  had  indeed  already  begun,  when  King  Ahaz  of 
Judah  so  weakly  invited  the  aid  of  Assyria  against  a  coali- 
tion of  Syria  and  Israel  in  which  they,  having  first  in  vain 
sought  his  cooperation,  plotted .  to  dethrone  him  (2  Kings 
xvi,  5-9  ;  Isa.  vii).  Instead  of  joining  with  them  against 
Assyria  he  invited  the  foe  himself  as  ally  against  them, 
thus  putting  himself  under  foreign  tribute  and  power.  With 
this  short-sighted  state  policy  was  conjoined  an  infatuation 
on  his  part  for  the  more  aesthetic  Assyrian  religion,  and  of 
course  disloyalty  to  the  worship  of  Jehovah.  He  showed  this 
by  introducing  foreign  idolatries  wholesale  into  Judah,  and 
giving  them  precedence  over  his  native  worship  (2  Kings 
xvi).    This  was  in  732  n.c,  ten  years  before  Samaria  fell. 

This  cowardly  and  faithless  policy  on  the  part  of  King 
Ahaz,  favoring  as  it  did  just  the  kind  of  encroachment  that 
Assyria  desired,  was  the  beginning  of  a  long  period  of  trou- 
ble and  suspense  for  the  Judean  state.  Through  the  reign  of 
Ahaz's  successor,  Hezekiah,  the  tension  continued,  in  vary- 
ing phases  of  imminence  or  remoteness,  until  it  culminated 
in  the  invasion,  in  701  b.c,  by  Sennacherib  ;  who  laid  waste 
many  Judean  towns,  carried  away  more  than  two  hundred 
thousand  inhabitants, ^  and  all  but  captured  the  capital  city 
Jerusalem.  On  account  of  the  sudden  retreat  of  the  Assyrian 
forces,  however,  an  event  which  to  Judah  had  all  the  effect 
of  a  miracle,  the  city  remained  inviolate,  as  Isaiah  had 
stoutly  prophesied  it  would  (Isa.  xxxvii,  33-35).  Thus  the 
crisis  was  averted,  but  only  after  it  had  become  so  imminent 
and  acute  as  to  work  a  profound  and  lasting  moral  effect 
on  the  whole  nation. 

It  was  while  this  crisis  was  threatening,  during  about  one 
third  of  the  eighth  century  b.c.  that  two  prophets,  nearly 
contemporaneous  with  each  other,  dealt  with  the  situation. 

^  According  to  the  memorial  inscription  by  Sennacherib  himself,  the 
so-called  Taylor  cylinder,  now  in  the  British  Museum. 

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These  were  :    Micah,  a  country  prophet,  who  hved  in  the 

village  of  Moresheth-Gath,  near  the  frontier  between  Judah 

^.  _,  .  and  the  Philistine  country;  and  Isaiah,  the  son  of 
The  Twin  ^  '  ' 

Prophets  in  Amoz,  beginning  earlier  and  prophesying  longer, 
Judah  who,   living  in  Jerusalem  and   being  himself  of 

distinguished  family,  had  the  ear  of  the  leading  and  wealthy 
classes.  Twin  prophets  these  two  may  not  unfitly  be  called. 
Though  speaking  from  the  midst  of  different  classes  and 
environments,  both  sense  with  like  intensity  the  signs  of 
the  times  ;  both  feel  essentially  the  same  national  evils  and 
needs  ;  and  both  mold  their  messages  to  the  same  apocalyptic 
vision,  described  indeed  in  identical  terms  :  the  vision  of  a 
golden  age  succeeding  in  the  latter  days  to  the  present  bad 
one,  and  bringing  in  the  final  era  of  law  and  righteousness 
and  peace  (Isa.  ii,  2-4  =  Mic.  iv,  1-3). 

11 

Micah,  Prophet  of  the  Countryside.  Of  the  two  contem- 
porary prophets  Micah  is  the  more  primitive  and  austere, 
as  might  be  expected  of  a  country  seer  whose  felt  duty  is 
to  be  the  spokesman  and  champion  of  the  common  man. 
In  general  we  may  say  that  he  sets  forth  in  outline  and 
rugged  epitome  what  Isaiah,  from  his  relatively  cultured 
center,   gives  in  more  finished  and  rhetorical  detail. 

His  prophecy,  purporting  to  have  been  given  "  in  the 
days  of  Jotham,  Ahaz,  and  Hezekiah,  kings  of  Judah," 
and  dating  from  a  time  apparently  a  little  before  the  fall 
of  the  northern  kingdom,  is  addressed  alike  to  both  king- 
doms as  if  they  were  an  undivided  people,  —  as  indeed  the 
prophets  always  regard  them.  It  is  "  the  word  .  .  .  which 
he  saw  concerning  Samaria  and  Jerusalem  "  (Mic.  i,  i)  ; 
the  two  capitals  named  as  representing  the  two  realms.  In 
both  kingdoms  it  is  still  a  time  of  luxury  and  worldly  pros- 
perity, with  their  attendant  evils  equally  flagrant  in  both, 
Micah's  home,  in  the  frontier  region  between  Judah  and  the 

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THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 

Philistine  country,  just  among  the  mortgaged  farms  where  the 
land-grabbing  greed  of  the  times  causes  most  distress,  and 
near  the  great  artery  of  trade  and  war  where  the  Assyrian 
invasions  of  a  few  years  later  cause  the  most  devastation, 
is  favorably  situated  to  observe  spiritual  and  material  con- 
ditions as  they  are.  Of  the  coming  invasions,  however,  he 
says  little,  beyond  the  general  prediction  that  both  Samaria 
(i,  6,  7)  and  Jerusalem  (iii,  12,  a  prophecy  recalled  a  full 
century  later,  Jer.  xxvi,  i8)  are  doomed.  His  regards  are 
deeper  ;  though  he  feels  with  realistic  keenness  the  disasters 
that  will  come  to  the  villages  of  his  vicinity  (i,  8-16).  His 
preliminary  object,  for  the  realization  of  which  he  feels  a 
special  endowment,  is  "to  declare  unto  Jacob  his  trans- 
gression, and  to  Israel  his  sin"  (iii,  8  ;  cf.  i,  5). 

We  have  called  Micah  and  Isaiah  twin  prophets.  It  seems 
to  have  been  their  mission,  whether  in  actual  collaboration 
or  not,  to  work  shoulder  to  shoulder  for  the  spiritual  wel- 
fare of  their  people.  As  Isaiah  was  the  mentor  of  the  lead- 
ing classes  in  Jerusalem,  Micah  was  the  spokesman  and 
champion  of  the  plain  people  of  the  countryside.  He  shared 
their  condition,  their  poverty,  their  wrongs.  He  knew  and 
honored  their  native  worth.  He  gave  noble  definition  to 
their  common-sense  religion.  And  from  all  this  he  drew  a 
prophetic  outlook  toward  broader  horizons  and  a  worthier 
goal  of  life.  In  a  true  sense,  indeed,  we  may  call  his 
prophecy  an  outline  map  of  the  prophetic  movement  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  common  man,  the  man  unde- 
flected  by  the  crookedness  of  the  world. 

Let  us  note  the  main  steps  in  this  prophecy  of  his. 

After  his  introductory  warning  and  lament  (chap,  i),  he 
begins  his  prophecy  proper  with  a  sharp  indictment  of  the 
men  who  in  both  kingdoms  seem  to  have  gained  control 
of  the  nation's  affairs,  the  landed  proprietors  who  plot  and 
practice  iniquity  "because  it  is  in  the  power  of  their  hand  " 
(ii,  I,  2),    It  was  with  them  and  their  cruel  mercenary  spirit 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

that  the  most  sweeping  evil  of  the  times  lay  (see  ii,  i,  2  ; 
iii,  1-3  ;  and  cf.  Isa.  v,  8  ;  Job  xxiv,  2-8)  ;  a  ruling  spirit 
The  Call  to  a  ^"^^ng  the  rich  which  was  reducing  the  poor 
Contrasted  landsmen  to  destitution,  and  extorting  cries  of 
Destiny  distress  (ii,  4,  8,  9).  The  money  greed  seemed 
to  be  the  motive  everywhere  ;  judges,  priests,  and  prophets 
alike  were  under  the  blight  of  it  (iii,  5,  11).  It  is  not  as 
mere  invective,  however,  that  the  prophet  brings  this  indict- 
ment. It  is  in  order  to  portray  the  ruin  it  works  in  the 
nation's  character.  The  prophetic  vision  is  darkened  and 
falsified  (iii,  6,  7  ;  cf .  ii,  1 1 )  ;  the  religious  sense  is  dimmed 
(iii,  II).  From  this  hard  and  stupid  state  of  things  it  is  the 
prophet's  endeavor  to  rouse  them  to  a  higher  and  contrasted 
ideal ;  it  is  not  in  Jehovah's  purpose  that  the  people  of  his 
hand  should  subside  to  the  heartless  level  of  greed  and 
luxur^^  Their  mission  is  other.  "  Arise  ye,  and  depart,"  he 
says,  "  for  this  is  not  your  resting-place  ;  because  of  unclean- 
ness  that  destroy eth,  even  with  a  grievous  destruction " 
(ii,  10).  Accordingly,  as  soon  as  he  has  put  into  a  concrete 
prediction  the  destruction  that  will  prove  him  true  (iii,  12), 
he  sets  over  against  it  the  vision  of  a  coming  age  of  light 
and  leading  which  his  prophecy  shares  with  Isaiah's  (iv,  1-5  ; 
cf.  Isa.  ii,  2-4).  The  ruined  temple  is  to  be  replaced  by  a 
world-temple,  to  which  all  nations  will  rejoice  to  come  for 
the  word  of  Jehovah.  It  is  in  having  the  missionary  spirit, 
not  the  predator)',  in  being  a  center  of  light  and  kindly 
law,  not  of  selfishness,  that  Jerusalem  is  to  find  her  true 
rest  and  peace. 

In  this  call  to  a  contrasted  destiny  Micah  strikes  the 
spiritual  keynote  of  the  whole  prophetic  movement ;  it  is 
toward  that  beneficent  object  that,  as  we  have  noted,  Israel's 
strange  vicissitudes  of  history  work  together. ^  But  we  have 
also  to  note,  as  St.  Paul  afterwards  did  and  as  Micah  evi- 
dently feels,  that  ""they  are  not  all  Israel  that  are  of  Israel," 
^  See  above,  pp.  136  ff. 
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THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 

(see  Rom.  ix,  6  ;  cf.  Matt,  iii,  9).  We  cannot  predicate  this 
good  tendency  of  all,  or  even  of  a  majority,  of  the  Jewish 
nation  ;  to  find  it  we  must  penetrate  to  the  inner  and  nobler 
soul  of  the  people,  recognizing  thereby  a  differentiation  of 
moral  and  religious  elements.  It  is  just  in  this  period  cov- 
ered by  the  prophetic  activity  of  Micah  and  Isaiah,  and 
perhaps  first  by  Micah  himself,  that  such  differentiation  is 
made ;  indicated  by  the  symbolic  personification  used  to 
designate  the  true  Israel,  "  the  daughter  of  Zion  "  (Mic.  i, 
13;  iv,  8,  10,  13),  —  Zion  being  the  local  name  that  con- 
noted Jehovah's  special  abode  and  place  of  revelation  (cf. 
Joel  iii,  16  ;  Amos  i,  2).  In  close  connection  with  this  term 
the  prophet  employs  the  idea  of  "the  remnant,"  an  idea 
of  which  Isaiah  will  make  much  use-.  It  is  to  "  the  hill  of 
the  daughter  of  Zion  "  that  the  dominion  will  come,  when 
Jehovah  has  "assembled"  the  remnant  of  Israel,  wham 
Micah  characteristically  identifies  with  the  poor  people  now 
so  wronged  and  oppressed  (ii,  12,  13;  iv,  6-8).  Then  in 
an  impassioned  apostrophe  he  calls  on  the  daughter  of  Zion, 
whom  he  represents  as  longing  for  a  king  and  counselor,  to 
"be  in  pain,  and  labor  to  bring  forth  .  .  .  like  a  woman  in 
travail  "  (iv,  9,  10)  ;  and  predicts  that  she  will  be  brought 
in  exile  to  Babylon,  where  the  assembled  nations  who  have 
come  to  mock  her  will  be  themselves  like  sheaves  on  the 
threshing-floor,  while  she  is  the  agency  commissioned  to 
thresh  (iv,  9-v,  i),  —  a  prophecy  which  seems  to  be  recalled 
and  applied  at  the  time  to  which  it  refers  (cf.  Isa.  xli,  15, 
16).  All  this,  whether  written  by  Micah  or  added  by  a  later 
editor,!  is  a  remarkable  epitome  of  Israel's  contrasted  destiny, 
introducing  a  number  of  symbolic  terms  which  thenceforth 
play  a  prominent  part  in  the  prophetic  vocabulary. 

1  As  many  critics  maintain,  on  the  apparent  ground  that  every  prophecy 
must  needs  be  deemed  as  nearly  a  vatici>iiit7n  post  eventu  as  possible.  The 
name  "Babylon,"  vs.  lo,  scares  them.  With  this,  however,  we  are  not 
especially  concerned ;  we  take  the  text  as  it  is. 

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The  apostrophe  to  the  daughter  of  Zion,  in  which  the 
prophet  describes  her  longing  for  a  king  and  the  destiny 
Th  Little  which  succecds  to  her  travail-pangs,  is  followed 
Town  of  by  an  apostrophe  to  the  little  town  of  Bethlehem, 
Bethlehem  predicting  that  out  of  that  seemingly  insignificant 
place  is  to  come  forth  one  "that  is  to  be  ruler  in  Israel, 
whose  goings  forth  are  from  of  old,  from  everlasting"  (v,  2). 
This  is  the  earliest  prophecy  in  which  the  hope  of  Israel  is 
centered  definitely  in  a  person  ;  and  w'hatever  it  meant  to 
the  prophet's  own  mind,  it  was  thenceforth  taken  as  the 
prediction  of  a  coming  Messiah,  and  as  fixing  for  future 
reference  his  birthplace  (see  Matt,  ii,  4,  5).  Micah's  con- 
ception of  his  greatness  is  couched  in  terms  of  the  shepherd 
and  his  flock  (v,  4;  cf.  ii,  12),  as  befits  the  thought-range 
of  a  country  prophet ;  he  is  proudly  sensible  also  of  the 
supreme  honor  done  to  an  obscure  place  and  a  humble  class 
of  people  such  as  he  represents  ;  but  of  one  eternal  truth 
the  ages  may  be  sure:  "This  man  shall  be  our  peace" 
(v,  5),  —  one  of  the  most  far-reaching  prophecies  of  the 
Old  Testament. 

For  the  rest,  for  what  concerns  the  political  events  of 
the  immediate  future,  the  prophet's  vision  is  vague  and 
unformed ;  evidently  it  is  not  a  material  but  a  spiritual 
future  that  he  has  in  mind,  and  this  is  not  measurable  in 
terms  of  time  and  season.  He  is  well  aware  of  the  immi- 
nent Assyrian  peril  (v,  5,  6)  ;  but  the  only  power  he  im- 
agines to  set  against  it  is  a  power  of  leadership,  "  seven 
shepherds  and  eight  principal  men,"  and  it  is  the  one 
shepherd  who,  after  all,  will  deliver  the  land  (v,  6).  From 
this  more  immediate  prospect,  however,  he  makes  escape  to 
the  larger  destiny  of  "the  remnant  of  Jacob,"  who  shall  be 
among  the  nations  both  like  the  gentle  influence  of  dew 
and  rain  (v,  7)  and  like  the  ravaging  of  the  young  lion 
(v,  8)  ;  and  in  whose  day  of  power  the  cumbrous  military 
lumber  and  the  elaborate  usages  of  idolatry  will  be  cut  off 

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THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 

(v,  10-15).  All  this  betokens  in  the  prophet  a  large  spirit- 
ual presage,  an  intuition  of  coming  inner  values,  which  tran- 
scends his  power  to  describe. 

The  thought  of  the  elaborate  usages  of  idolatry  which 
"in  that  day"  are  doomed  to  pass  suggests  by  contrast 
God's  Plea  ^^^^  plainness  and  reasonableness  of  the  religion 
for  Plain  that  Jeliovali  requires  from  his  people.  This  is 
®  '^'°°  not  put  as  a  requirement,  however,  but  as  a 
plea;  it  is  "Jehovah's  controversy  with  his  people"  (vi,  2), 
appealing  to  their  simple  sense  of  the  way  in  which  he  has 
led  them.  The  case  of  Ikilak  and  Balaam  (Num.  xxii-xxiv) 
is  cited,  apparently  because  of  the  lavish  offerings  made  and 
wealth  poured  out  in  a  heathen  effort  to  buy  a  favorable 
response  from  Jehovah.  In  Micah's  view,  as  in  his  con- 
temporary Isaiah's  (cf.  Isa.  i,  10-17),  i^o  such  labored  serv- 
ice is  needed  or  fitting,  though  it  reach  the  extreme  of 
sacrifice  (vi,  7).  Then  follows  the  celebrated  utterance  which 
is  universally  deemed  the  sanest  and  most  reasonable  defi- 
nition of  religion  that  the  Old  Testament  or  indeed  any 
literature  affords  :  "He  hath  showed  thee,  O  man,  what  is 
good  ;  and  what  doth  Jehovah  require  of  thee,  but  to  do 
justly,  and  to  love  kindness,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy 
God  }  "  (vi,  8).  It  is  the  country  prophet's  remedy  for  a 
time  that,  with  its  tendencies  to  the  spirit  of  greed,  had 
grown  top-heavy  with  its  luxurious  cultus  (cf.  Amos  iv,  4, 
5  ;   Isa.  i,   11). 

This  plea  for  plain  religion  is  not  made  in  invective  as 
is  Isaiah's.  In  a  spirit  of  tolerance,  rather,  it  recognizes  in 
the  people  a  sincere  craving  for  the  favor  of  God  and  a 
disposition  to  make  the  greatest  sacrifices  therefor.  But 
these  are  the  religiously  inclined  ;  and  not  all  are  so,  per- 
haps indeed  only  a  remnant.  The  plea  has  also  a  voice, 
however,  for  "the  city,"  for  the  classes  engaged  in  trade 
and  traffic  and  husbandry,  the  classes  whose  mercenary 
spirit  is  getting  the  upper  hand.    If  they  will  let  their  sound 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

intuition  ^  speak,  they  too  will  see  that  a  conduct  that  observes 
justice  and  mercy  and  humility  has  its  vital  claim  upon 
them,  a  claim  which  their  dishonest  tricks  of  trade,  derived 
from  their  more  worldly  brethren  of  the  northern  kingdom, 
have  outraged.  No  peace  of  life,  no  real  prosperity,  no 
esteem  and  honor  among  the  nations,  can  come  of  such 
practices  ;  they  are  utterly  inconsistent  with  God's  require- 
ment. Such  seems  to  be  the  purport  and  connection  of  the 
passage  (vi,  9-16).  It  is  addressed  to  those  whose  favor- 
ite literature  is  not  prophecy  nor  poetry  but  Wisdom.^ 

As  Micah  contemplates  the  spirit  of  his  time,  the  sense 
of  his  loneliness  therein,  and  of  the  falseness  and  rotten- 
Emerein  "^^^  ^^  ^'^*^  social  Structure,  comes  upon  him  with 
from  the  Overwhelming  force  ;  it  is  as  if  he  were  living 
ora  aos  j^  ^  moral  chaos,  wherein  all  kindly  human  rela- 
tions were  reversed  and  a  man's  enemies  were  the  men  of 
his  own  house.  It  is  the  pessimistic  stage  in  his  book  of 
prophecy,  from  which  his  faith  must  make  escape  if  he 
would  keep  sight  of  Jehovah's  purpose  at  all  (vii,    1-6). 

Accordingly,  in  the  last  chapter  of  his  book  (vii,  7-20)  the 
spirit  of  the  prophet,  by  a  magnificent  resilience,  emerges 
from  the  doubts  and  perplexities  into  which  the  evils  of  the 
time  have  temporarily  plunged  him.  "  Rejoice  not  against 
me,  O  mine  enemy,"  he  exclaims  ;  "  when  I  fall,  I  shall 
arise  ;  when  I  sit  in  darkness,  Jehovah  will  be  a  light  unto 
me "  (vii,  8).  We  have  noted  his  personified  symbol  the 
"daughter  of  Zion,"  whose  mission  it  was  to  bring  forth 
the  kingly  spirit  of  redemption  and  to  "  arise  and  thresh  " 
(iv,  10,  13);  we  have  to  note  here  another  personification, 
his  enemy,  "'  her  who  said  unto  me.  Where  is  Jehovah  thy 
God.''"  (vii,  10),  a  mocking  spirit  which  he  has  encountered, 
which  is  destined  to  shame  and  extinction.  It  is  "a  day  for 
building  thy  wails,"  the  constructive  day  succeeding  to  this 

1  So  I  interpret  the  word  translated  "wisdom,"  vi,  9. 
-  See  above,  pp.  92-96. 

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THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 

disintegration.  He  depicts  it  in  much  the  same  terms  as  does 
Isaiah  :  the  large  and  liberal  time  when  peoples  shall  come 
to  Israel  from  the  great  realms  of  the  earth  (vii,  12  ;  cf. 
Isa.  xix,  23,  24),  and  in  Jehovah's  light  submit  themselves 
to  his  fear  (vii,  17  ;  cf.  Isa.  xi,  12  ;  xlix,  18  ;  Ix).  Thus  by 
his  faith  in  that  contrasted  destiny  to  which  in  the  begin- 
ning he  has  called  his  people,  Micah  pushes  his  prophecy  to 
the  outer  limit  of  the  prophetic  range,  and  proves  himself 
a  worthy  sharer  with  Isaiah  in  discovering  and  intei'preting 
the  inner  signs  of  his  day.  In  the  sound  spiritual  insight 
of  the  twin  prophets  of  Judah  prophecy  is  responding  nobly 
to  its  time  of  stress. 

Ill 

Isaiah  of  Jerusalem.  Coming  now  to  the  sublimest  of  the 
prophets  and  one  of  the  most  vital  literary  forces  of  all  time, 
we  have  from  the  outset  to  reckon,  in  the  Book  of  Isaiah, 
with  a  divided  authorship.  Of  the  sixty-six  chapters  making 
up  the  book,  the  last  twenty-seven  (chapters  xl-lxvi)  belong 
to  a  period  about  one  hundred  and  sixty  years  later  than  the 
period  with  which  chapters  i  to  xxxix  deal,  and  is  accordingly 
distinguished  in  modern  scholarship  as  the  Second  Isaiah  or 
Deutero- Isaiah.  This  fact  of  divided  authorship,  which  may 
be  taken  as  an  assured  result  of  criticism,  is  determined  by 
internal  evidence,  and  naturally  gives  rise  to  much  study  of 
the  relation  of  the  two  parts  of  the  book  to  each  other,  — 
if  indeed  there  is  a  connection  more  than  accidental. 

In  the  view  which  we  shall  here  follow,  and  which  is 
derived  from  the  like  internal  evidence,  the  authorship  may 
better  be  called  composite  than  divided.  In  other  words,  the 
Second  Isaiah,  in  our  view,  is  an  organic  sequel  and  sup- 
plement to  the  First ;  as  if  a  later  prophet,  musing  in  the 
same  vein,  had  taken  up  the  theme  where  the  earlier  one  had 
laid  it  down,  and  rounded  it  out  to  a  finish.  And  so  the 
two  parts,  while  set  in  a  different  scene  and  subtending  two 

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widely  sundered  epochs  of  time,  are  in  reality  one  book, 
with  one  homogeneous  scheme  of  thought,  and  with  a  clear 
coordination  and  consecution  of  elements.  To  the  just 
articulation  of  this  organic  scheme  the  work  of  Isaiah  of 
Jerusalem  is  as  essential,  and  as  lucidly  contributive,  as  is 
that  of  his  supplementer,  the  seer  of  the  Exile. 

What  makes  the  Book  of  Isaiah  as  a  whole  so  sublime 
is  the  fact  that  by  its  coordinated  parts  it  covers  the  whole 
The  Vision  range  of  the  prophetic  period.  Beginning  some 
and  the  Word  years  before  the  fall  of  the  northern  kingdom, 
weathering  a  vital  crisis  in  Judah,  and  culminating  as  the 
Chaldean  exile  is  felt  to  be  near  its  end,  it  groups  its  main 
subject  matter  round  two  historical  focal  points:  the  Assyrian 
invasions,  culminating  with  that  of  Sennacherib  in  701  is.c. ; 
and  the  campaigns  of  Cyrus,  bringing  near  the  fall  of  Baby- 
lon in  538  B.C.  and  the  prospective  release  of  the  Jewish 
people  from  exile.  Between  these  points  there  lies,  with  its 
generous  horizons  of  educative  time  and  experience,  well- 
nigh  the  whole  landscape  of  literary  prophecy.  To  traverse 
this  in  spiritual  realization  requires  more  than  a  sage's  or 
statesman's  genius  :  it  calls  for  a  divinely  touched  sense 
of  the  mind  and  purpose  of  God.  Such  a  sense  this  Book 
of  Isaiah  evinces  beyond  any  other  Scripture  book.  It  is  a 
blend  of  apocalyptic  and  historically  conditioned  prevision. 
Both  these  qualities  seem  recognized  in  the  titles  appended 
to  the  body  of  the  prophecy.  In  chapter  i,  i,  it  is  called  a 
Vision  :  "  the  vision  of  Isaiah  the  son  of  Amoz," — a  desig- 
nation which  we  find  in  only  two  other  prophetic  books, 
Obadiah  and  Nahum.  What  this  term  distinctively  means, 
in  Isaiah's  case,  will  come  up  for  consideration  later.^  The 
opening  chapter,  giving  the  ground  and  design  underlying 
this  Vision,  is  a  fitting  introduction  to  the  whole  book,  though 
it  may  have  contemplated  only  the  time  of  Isaiah  of  Jerusalem. 
It  lays  a  foundation  on  which  ages  of  prophecy  can  build. 

^  Under  the  heading,  "  Isaiah's  Vision  of  Destiny,"  pp.  189  ff. 

ri68i 


THE   STRESS   OF  PROPHECY 

After  this  initial  chapter,  however,  a  new  start  is  made, 
under  a  title  which  names  the  prophecy  a  Word  :  "  the  word 
that  Isaiah  the  son  of  Amoz  saw"  (ii,  i).  It  seems  thus  to 
draw  in  the  matter  of  the  book  from  the  apocalyptic  to  the 
local  and  historic ;  like  the  vision  title  but  in  a  more 
restricted  sense  it  purports  to  be  "  concerning  Judah  and 
Jerusalem."  This  title,  unlike  Micah's,  seems  to  ignore  the 
northern  kingdom  (his"  was  "  concerning  Samaria  and  Jeru- 
salem," Mic.  i,  i)  ;  but  in  the  prophecy  itself  some  of  the 
most  notable  oracles  are  connected  with  the  fortunes  and 
character  of  that  people  (see  Isa.  ix,  8-x,  4  ;  xvii,  i-ii  ; 
xxviii,  1-6).  Mainly,  however,  the  prophet  is  called  to  be 
the  spokesman  of  Jehovah  for  the  capital  and  its  grave 
needs  in  this  time  of  stress. 

It  is  with  this  Isaiah  of  Jerusalem,  Isaiah  the  son  of  Amoz, 
and  his  "  word,"  that  the  present  section  is  concerned. 

What  Micah  sees  from  the  country  and  from  the  point 
of  view  of"  the  common  man,  the  man  on  the  under  side. 
The  Situation  Isaiah  sccs  from  his  station  among  the  aristo- 
in  Jerusalem  cratic  classcs  in  Jerusalem  :  a  people  materialized 
by  luxury  and  heartless  greed  (v,  8-12;  18-23),  eager  for 
foreign  customs  and  fads  (ii,  6-9),  mixing  their  formal  wor- 
ship with  iniquity  (i,  10- 1 4),  and  obtuse  to  spiritual  things 
(vi,  9,  10).  In  dealing  with  this  situation  he  sets  over 
against  it.  as  does  Micah,  the  contrasted  destiny  of  the  latter 
days  (ii,  2-4)  ;  but  he  applies  its  lessons  in  inverse  order. 
Micah  works  up  to  it  from  the  deplorable  conditions  of  the 
day  (Mic.  i-iii)  ;  Isaiah,  taking  it  as  a  literary  point  of  de- 
parture, works  downward  and  outward  from  it  to  the  details 
of  the  utter  contrast  that  he  feels  around  him,  the  thankless 
conditions  with  which  his  prophetic  labors  must  deal  (ii-v). 
Employing  for  this  mostly  the  impassioned  rhythm  *)f  pub- 
lic discourse,  he  sums  up  the  situation  with  a  song  (v,  1-7); 
in  which  he  depicts  a  well-located  vineyard,  which  was  pro- 
vided with  every  care  and  cultivation  for  producing  choice 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

grapes,  and  yet  brought  forth  only  wild  grapes,  —  as  if  all 
the  endeavor  to  improve  upon  untamed  nature  were  in  vain. 
"  For  the  vineyard  of  Jehovah  of  hosts,"  his  song  concludes, 
*■'  is  the  house  of  Israel,  and  the  men  of  Judah  his  pleasant 
plant:  and  he  looked  for  justice,  but  behold,  oppression; 
for  righteousness,  but  behold,  a  cry  "  (v,  7). 

For  such  a  condition  of  things  he  can  only  prophesy 
disaster  and  gloom  (v,  30)  ;  and  he  is  not  sparing  in  the 
tremendous  power  of  his  invective  ;  but  as  an  alleviating 
offset  he  always  keeps  in  mind  the  alternative  nobler  con- 
duct and  destiny  reserved  for  the  sterling  remnant  which 
is  to  constitute  the  redeeming  element  of  the  true  Israel 
(i,  18-20;  vi,  12,  13;  iv,  2-6). 

By  its  first  title  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah  is  assigned  to 
'"  the  days  of  Uzziah,  Jotham,  Ahaz,  and  Hezekiah,  kings 
Isaiah's  Call  oi  Judah  "  (i,  i)  ;  but  it  was  not  until  the  year  of 
and  its  Object  King  Uzziah's  death  (see  vi,  i),  which  occurred  in 
740  li.c,  that  he  had  the  particular  vision  from  which  he 
received  his  call  to  the  prophetic  office.  The  call,  with  its 
awesome  experience  of  a  mystic  contact  with  Jehovah  and 
his  ministering  spirits,  imparted  a  new  sense  to  the  prophet 
and  to  prophecy  —  the  sense  of  Jehovah's  holiness.  His  dis- 
tinctive designation  of  Jehovah,  as  the  personal  Being  whose 
spokesman  he  is  called  to  be,  is  "the  Holy  One  of  Israel." 
The  primary  meaning  of  holiness  is  separateness :  from 
all  moral  evil,  with  its  corrupting  and  entangling  influences, 
from  all  that  is  prone  or  indifferent  to  such  evil ;  a  separate- 
ness of  which  Jehovah  is  the  eternal  and  living  Pattern. 
To  make  this  idea  lucid,  to  make  it  prevail  in  a  per\'erse 
and  corrupted  nation,  and  to  enforce  men's  relation  thereto, 
is  the  long  and  laborious  task  of  Isaiah, — a  task  which  can 
hardly  count  its  first  success  for  forty  years,  and  then  only 
by  what  seems  a  miraculous  event. 

To  put  the  matter  in  more  modern  terms,  we  may  say 
the  object  of  Isaiah's  prophetic  task  was  to  induce  in  his 

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THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 

« 
people  a  spiritual  realization  of  God  and  truth  and  duty. 
This,  a  hard  undertaking  in  any  case,  was  supremely  hard 
in  a  people  whose  worship  was  ritual  and  formal  and  whose 
ideals  were  materialized  to  worldly  pursuits  and  standards. 
They  had  developed  no  sense  for  spiritual  values  ;  and  such 
sense  could  be  induced  only  with  dii^culty.  It  is  with  a 
realization  of  this  difficulty  that  the  Lord  sends  him  :  "'  Go, 
and  tell  this  people,  'Hear  ye  indeed,  but  understand  not; 
and  see  ye  indeed,  but  perceive  not.'  Make  the  heart  of  this 
people  fat,  and  make  their  ears  heavy,  and  shut  their  eyes  ; 
lest  they  see  with  their  eyes,  and  hear  with  their  ears,  and 
understand  with  their  heart,  and  turn  again,  and  be  healed  " 
(vi,  9,  lo).  The  same  obtuseness  to  spiritual  truth  was  later 
recognized  by  Jesus  (see  Matt,  xiii,  14,  15),  and  by  St.  Paul 
(see  Acts  xxviii,  25-27  ;  Rom.  xi,  8)  ;  it  was,  as  in  Isaiah's 
case,  simply  their  encounter  with  the  fact  that  spiritual 
things  must  be  spiritually  discerned  (cf.  i  Cor.  ii,  14,  15). 
We  have  noted  that  Micah  attributes  a  like  blindness  to  the 
prophets  of  the  time  (Mic.  iii,  5-8)  ;  Hosea  saw  the  same 
in  the  northern  kingdom  (Hos.  ix,  7,  8)  ;  Isaiah  too  has 
much  discouragement  over  the  slowness  and  stupidity  of 
the  people  in  getting  their  spiritual  sense  awake  (Isa.  xxix, 
9-12).  But  to  keep  at  it,  "line  upon  line,"  to  induce  true 
spiritual  insight  among  a  blind  people  who  think  they  see, 
is  for  a  whole  generation  the  prophet's  thankless  labor. 

In  bringing  about  this  quickened  spiritual  attitude  Isaiah 
must  work  with  the  social  and  political  conditions  of  the 
time  ;  and  to  this  end  must  address  himself  to  the  concrete 
crises  and  issues  that  come  before  the  kingdom  of  Judah. 
Accordingly,  from  the  beginning  of  his  work  he  has  to  con- 
cern himself  much  with  the  administrative  and  diplomatic 
affairs  of  the  state  ;  his  family  position  seems  to  give  him 
the  right.  He  is  in  fact  the  wisest  statesman  of  his  time  — 
an  almost  solitary  figure  committed  through  a  long  and 
troublous   period   to   a   deep-founded,   consistent,    far-seeing 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

* 
policy.  Encompassed  by  the  arrogant  yet  temporizing  oppor- 
tunism of  kings,  nobles,  and  seers,  wherein  "all  vision  is 
become  ...  as  the  words  of  a  book  that  is  sealed  "  (xxix, 
II),  and  all  religion  "a  commandment  of  men  learned  by 
rote"  (xxix,  13,  margin),  he  alone  has  the  insight  to  see 
straight  and  clear  and  through.  He  concentrates  his  pro- 
phetic statesmanship,  however,  on  one  main  object.  His 
fundamental  effort  is  to  set  up  in  the  torpid  soul  of  the 
nation  a  current  of  active  spiritual  energy  responsive  to 
Jehovah,  "the  Holy  One  of  Israel."  Another  name  for 
this  energy  is  faith  ;  and,  indeed,  Isaiah  is  distinctively  the 
prophet  of  faith,  the  first  of  the  prophets  to  lay  vigorous 
emphasis  on  this  virtue.  It  is  the  vital  element  with  which 
the  life  of  the  spirit  begins  ;  it  is  the  element  by  which 
Israel  shall  be  delivered  from  national  perils  and  redeemed 
to  a  noble  mission  in  the  earth. 

Our  limits  of  space  forbid  a  detailed  account  of  Isaiah's 
wonderful  campaign  on  behalf  of  faith,  and  his  far-sighted 
effort  thereby  to  bring  eventually  to  pass  his  vision  of  a 
clean  Jerusalem,  purified,  as  he  expresses  it,  "  by  the  spirit 
of  justice,  and  by  the  spirit  of  burning"  (iv,  4).  In  this 
campaign  he  has  first  to  deal  with  the  faithless  and  shallow 
king  Ahaz  (vii)  ;  who,  dismayed  by  the  coalition  of  Syria 
and  Ephraim  against  his  realm,  and  already  hankering  after 
the  aesthetic  shows  of  heathen  cultus  (cf.  2  Kings  xvi, 
10-13),  had  evidently  no  sincere  loyalty  to  Jehovah  and 
was  planning  to  invite  aid  from  Assyria.  To  him  and  his 
house  the  prophet's  severe  word  of  warning  is,  "If  ye  will 
not  believe,  surely  ye  shall  not  be  established "  (vii,  9). 
Then  later,  when  the  Assyrian  peril  is  imminent,  and  the 
leaders  are  nervously  planning  alHances  with  Egypt  and 
Ethiopia,  the  prophet's  pica  for  faith  in  Jehovah  is  still 
more  emphatic.  "  Behold,"  his  word  from  Jehovah  is,  "I 
lay  in  Zion  for  a  foundation  a  stone,  a  tried  stone,  a  pre- 
cious  corner-stone   of   sure   foundation :    he   that   believeth 

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THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 

shall  not  be  in  haste  "  (xxviii,  i6).  Such  faith,  working  by 
"justice  the  line,  and  righteousness  the  plummet,"  is  to  be 
the  nation's  wisdom  and  strength  ;  fortified  by  its  quiet  confi- 
dence they  need  no  alien  help  ;  or  as  he  phrases  it :  "In  re- 
turning and  rest  shall  ye  be  saved  :  in  quietness  and  in  con- 
fidence shall  be  your  strength"  (xxx,  15).  Through  many 
shifts  of  sentiment  and  policy,  and  in  spite  of  scorn  and 
contempt  (cf.  xxviii,  9-13),  he  counseled  this  self-respecting 
self-reliant  loyalty  to  Jehovah  ;  it  is  the  keynote  of  his  pro- 
phetic message.  And  when  at  length  the  long-threatened 
crisis  came,  and  King  Hezekiah,  who  though  sincerely  dis- 
posed to  Isaiah's  faith  lacked  a  resolute  personality,  was 
confronted  with  Sennacherib's  arrogant  demand  for  sur- 
render, the  prophet,  coming  forward,  hurled  defiance  at  the 
imperial  invader  in  an  answer  which  tested  and  exalted  his 
faith  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  (xxxvii,  21-32  ;  cf.  2  Chron. 
xxxii,  23).  The  sequel  was  the  miraculous  intervention 
on  the  part  of  Jehovah  himself  by  which  he  vindicated 
the  prophet's  word.  Jerusalem  was  prophesied  inviolate,  and 
proved  so.  Jehovah's  care  for  his  people  was  revealed,  in 
spite  of  their  lack  of  trust.  It  was  a  momentous  step  in 
the  planting  of  spiritual  religion  in  Israel ;  a  starting  point 
for  the  growth,  through  the  succeeding  century  (701-597), 
of  a  character  which,  when  the  actual  captivity  came,  would 
find  a  people  strong  and  ready. 

We  have  called  Isaiah's  prophecy  a  blend  of  the  histori- 
cal and  the  apocalyptic  ;  ^  which  is  another  way  of  saying 
His  Symbolic  he  had  in  mind  two  fields  of  vision,  or  rather 
Undertone  ^^^q  ranges  in  one  field,  like  concentric  circles  : 
an  immediate  and  a  far-reaching,  or,  in  other  words,  a 
range  of  objective  circumstances  and  events  and  a  range  of 
inner  tendencies  and  forces.  The  horizon  of  the  immediate 
range,  which  was  in  the  more  specific  purview  of  Isaiah 
of  Jerusalem,  was  the  Assyrian  menace  and  invasion.    The 

^  See  above,  p.  168  ;  and  for  apocalyptic,  see  p.  147,  note  2. 
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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

far-reaching  range,  for  which  the  smaller  was  a  kind  of  gesta- 
tion period,  had  no  horizon  except  the  limitless  purpose  of 
God  for  all  lands  and  times  ;  it  contained  the  initial  promise 
of  the  vision  which  we  see  perpetuated  in  the  Second  Isaiah. 
To  warn  and  prepare  the  nation  for  the  Assyrian  crisis 
no  language  of  symbolism  is  needed  ;  the  literal  situation, 
with  its  civic,  political,  and  religious  phases,  calls  merely 
for  the  plainest  and  most  trenchant  speech.  Accordingly, 
the  prophet  employs  merely  the  impassioned  terms  of  ex- 
hortation and  admonition,  intense  to  fit  the  urgency  of  the 
case,  and  with  such  imagery  as  will  give  vigor  and  thrust. 
It  is  in  the  masterly  use  of  such  literary  power,  mounting 
at  times  to  wonderful  reaches  of  sublimity,  that  Isaiah  ranks 
among  the  consummate  authors  of  the  world.  He  did  indeed 
employ  a  kind  of  dramatic  means  to  enforce  his  message  ; 
but  these  acts  were  rather  an  acted  oracle  than  a  symbol. 
Long  before  the  peril  was  imminent  in  Judah,  perhaps  as 
early  as  the  time  of  Joel  and  Amos  (cf.  Joel  ii,  32  ;  Amos 
V,  15),  he  had  named  a  son  Shear-jashub,  "a  remnant  shall 
return,"  —  a  son  old  enough  to  accompany  the  prophet  when 
King  Ahaz  was  meditating  submission  to  Assyria  (vii,  3)  ; 
and  this  name  embodies  the  central  word  of  Isaiah's  mes- 
sage. Soon  after  that  interview  too,  when  as  it  would  seem 
the  troubles  of  the  realm  were  deemed  happily  adjusted, 
the  prophet  named  another  son  Maher-shalal-hash-baz,  "  spoil 
speedeth,  prey  hasteth,"  —  a  name  meant  to  proclaim  the 
imminence  of  the  woe  which  would  overtake  the  northern 
kingdom  (viii,  1-4).  For  the  rest,  however,  his  thankless 
task,  through  a  generation  of  contingency  and  suspense, 
was  to  bring  a  fat-hearted,  unspiritual  people  to  their  senses 
as  wards  of  the  Holy  One  of  Israel.  As  expressed  in  the 
terms  of  his  call,  he  had  to  keep  at  this  arduous  duty  until 
the  land  was  reduced  well-nigh  to  extremities,,and  there  was 
left  only  a  remnant  whom  he  calls  "'  the  holy  seed  .  .  .  the 
stock  thereof,"  from  which,  as  from  the  stump  of  an  oak, 

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THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 

"whose  stock  remaineth,"  the  hope  of  the  future  was  to 
come  (vi,  1 1-13).  But  when  we  understand  whom  he  means 
by  the  remnant,  this  designation  is  not  figurative  but  Hteral, 

Note.  The  Calamity  of  tlie  Land.  The  literal  distress  referred  to 
in  vi,  II,  12,  depicted  again  in  the  introductory  chapter  as  the  nadir 
point  from  which  the  upward  movement  of  the  whole  prophecy  is  to 
be  reckoned  (i,  7-9),  was  doubtless  the  Assyrian  invasion  by  Sennach- 
erib in  701  B.C.,  in  the  course  of  which,  according  to  his  inscription, 
many  towns  in  the  frontiers  of  Judah  (Micah's  district;  cf.  Mic.  i,  8-16) 
were  devastated,  more  than  200,000  captives  were  deported,  and  Jeru- 
salem was  beleaguered.  How  Isaiah  met  this  calamity,  with  what 
conviction  and  faith,  we  have  seen. 

Throughout  this  moral  and  civic  strain  of  prophecy, 
however,  beginning  at  his  first  encounter  with  the  recreant 
house  of  David  (cf.  vii,  13),  there  runs  an  undertone  of 
what  may  be  called  symbolic  presage ;  though  whether  more 
fitly  termed  symbolic  or  spiritually  intrinsic  is  a  fair  ques- 
tion. In  the  use  of  this  symbolic  undertone  Isaiah-  and  his 
contemporary  Micah  are  quite  at  one,^  Isaiah's  being  the 
more  articulate  and  finished.  Both  shape  their  ideas  to  a 
coming  golden  age;  both  have  at  heart  the  worth  and  mis- 
sion of  the  remnant ;  both  are  zealous  for  the  daughter  of 
Zion  ;  both  are  deeply  conscious  of  a  gestation  period  in 
Israel  "  until  the  time  that  she  who  travaileth  hath  brought 
forth  "  (Mic.  v,  3)  ;  and  out  of  the  visions  of  both  there 
emerges  a  Personage  to  whom  is  ascribed,  in  terms  suited 
to  each  prophet's  circumstances,  a  leadership  kingly  and 
pastoral,  a  Prince  of  peace  to  high  and  lowly.  It  is  in  the 
masterly  handling  and  coordination  of  these  symbolic  ele- 
ments, if  such  they  may  be  called,  that  we  get  at  once  the 
direction  of  Israel's  noblest  destiny  and  the  substantial  be- 
ginnings of  Messianic  prophecy.  No  other  prophet  (except 
his  supplementer  the  Second  Isaiah)  has  contributed  such 
essential  meanings  to  Jehovah's  revealed  will  and  purpose. 

^  See  above,  p.  161. 
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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Compared  with  the  values  involved  in  this  symbolic  under- 
tone, the  Assyrian  menace  was  but  an  incident,  a  passing 
episode,  to  be  faced  and  surmounted  on  the  way  to  a 
nobler  destiny. 

A  somewhat  detailed  account  of  the  Messianic  strain  in 
which  this  shapes  itself  is  in  order  here  ;  because  it  is  the 
element  by  which  the  Book  of  Isaiah  ^  is  best  known  and 
which  has  taken  the  most  vital  hold  on  all  the  ages 
succeeding  him. 

I  have  called  it  a  symbolic  undertone  because  it  deals 
with  the  evolution  of  a  race's  ordained  destiny  in  terms  of 
the  birth  and  maturing  of  a  person,  or  as  we  may  say  more 
abstractly,  of  a  divinely  quickened  personality.  It  is,  so  to 
say,  the  hidden  history  of  the  "  holy  seed  "  of  Israel,  which 
when  the  spiritual  core  of  the  nation  is  reduced  to  a  seem- 
ingly insignificant  remnant  is  "the  stock  thereof"  (vi,  13); 
a  history  given  in  glimpses  as  salient  as  the  needs  of  the 
dim  and  perilous  times  require.  The  prophet's  cryptic  an- 
nouncement began  when  he  gave  to  King  Ahaz  the  sign  for 
which  the  latter  had  neither  sense  nor  desire  :  the  sign  of 
"God  with  us"  (Immanuel ;  see  vii,  14),  a  sign  to  be  ap- 
prehended not  by  such  as  he  but  by  a  spiritual  intuition. 
Touched  with  a  mystic  penetration,  the  prophet  was  aware 
of  a  thrill,  a  stirring  of  new  life  in  Israel  which  he  associ- 
ated with  the  true  daughter  of*  Zion,  and  interpreted  as  the 
token  of  a  new  spiritual  birth  ;  or  as  he  expressed  it,  "  Be- 
hold, the  'alma'^  (maiden)  shall  conceive,  and  bear  a  son, 
and  shall  call  his  name  Immanuel."  This  word,  which  for 
the  prophet  names  not  a  symbol  but  a  real  fact,  is   used 

1  One  strong  element  of  the  essential  unity  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah  is  the 
fact  that  this  element  is  carried  on  continuously  and  progressively  in  both 
First  and  Second  Isaiah;  see  Chapter  VI,  i,  3. 

-  This  is  not  the  usual  name  for  virgin  ;  it  means  a  marriageable  maiden; 
and  the  definite  article  with  it  seems  to  refer  to  someone  already  known 
or  identifiable.  Like  our  Lord's  parables,  however,  it  is  meant  for  those 
who  have  "  ears  to  hear." 

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THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 

thereafter  to  enforce  the  prediction  that  when  the  flood  of 
Assyrian  invasion  shall  sweep  through  the  land  and  men 
shall  be  inclined  to  dubious  coalitions  against  it,  there  will 
be  enough  of  divine  power  in  this  new  birth,  enough  of 
spiritual  firmness,  to  withstand  the  impact  (see  the  repeti- 
tion of  the  name,  viii,  8,  lo).  With  this  mystic  announce- 
ment, however,  he  joins  a  literal  one,  predicting  with  formal 
solemnity  the  birth  of  his  second  son,  Maher-shalal-hash- 
baz  (viii,  1-4) ;  of  whom,  together  with  his  other  son  Shear- 
jashub,  he  affirms  for  those  whose  sense  is  duller,  "  Behold, 
I  and  the  children  whom  Jehovah  hath  given  me  are  for 
signs  and  for  wonders  in  Israel  from  Jehovah  of  hosts, 
who  dwelleth  in  Mount  Zion  "  (viii,   18). 

This  sign  is  for  the  "house  of  David"  (cf.  vii,  2,  13) 
and  the  people  of  Judah  ;  but  with  their  faithlessness  to 
Jehovah's  law  and  their  craze  for  necromancy  and  divina- 
tion (cf.  ii,  6)  they  are  only  in  the  way  of  distress  and 
darkness  (viii-,  19-22).  It  is  not  from  their  quarter  that  the 
first  light  shall  come,  but  from  the  northern  lands  that  were 
first  invaded  (cf.  2  Kings  xv,  29),  "Galilee  [circuit  or  dis- 
trict] of  the  nations  "  (ix,  1-5).  There,  as  he  prophesies, 
a  Child  is  already  born,  who  shall  receive  divine  names, 
and  "of  the  increase  of  [whose]  government  and  of  peace 
there  shall  be  no  end,  upon  the  throne  of  David  and  upon 
his  kingdom,  to  establish  it,  and  to  uphold  it  with  justice 
and  with  righteousness  from  henceforth  even  for  ever " 
(ix,  6,  7).  As  of  the  growth  and  fruitage  of  the  remnant, 
so  of  this  event  the  prophet  says,  "  The  zeal  of  Jehovah 
of  hosts  will  perform  this  "  (cf.  xxxvii,   32). 

The  next  announcement  is  not  of  a  new-born  child,  but 
of  One  who  has  reached  the  estate  of  young  manhood ; 
and  it  comes  after  the  prophet  has  assured  his  nation  that 
the  Assyrian  is  only  an  agency  in  Jehovah's  hand  for  the 
punishment  of  Israel,  a  scourge  whose  arrogant  function 
will   pass,   though    not   until    it    has    swept   through    Israel 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

almost  to  Zion  (x,  5-19,  28-32),  and  only  a  remnant  shall 
be  left  who  "shall  no  more  again  lean  upon  him  that  smote 
them," — as  did  Ahaz  when  he  invited  their  aid  (vs.  20). 
A  severe  destruction  and  humiliation  must  precede  the 
coming  of  this  Personage  (x,  20-23,  33,  34).  And  then 
his  origin  is  traced  not  to  David  but  to  David's  father 
Jesse  and  his  stock  ;  which,  like  Micah's  prophecy,  identi- 
fies him  with  Bethlehem,  Jesse's  abode  (xi,  i  ;  cf.  Mic.  v,  2).* 
To  the  wonderful  character  ascribed  to  this  "  shoot  out  of 
the  stock  of  Jesse  "  is  appended  a  glowing  description  of 
regenerated  nature  (xi,  6—9),  and  then  the  universalized 
prediction  :  "  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day,  that 
the  root  of  Jesse,  that  standeth  for  an  ensign  of  the  peoples, 
unto  him  shall  the  nations  seek  ;  and  his  resting-place  shall 
be  glorious  "  (xi,  10).  A  prophecy  of  return  from  exile  and 
dispersion  follows,  with  restored  harmony  between  the  dis- 
cordant sections  of  Israel  (xi,   11-16). 

One  more  announcement  belongs  to  the  same  chain  of 
predictions,  though  it  goes  a  step  beyond  the  Messianic  in- 
dividual. It  is  of  the  Messianic  realm.  It  comes  in  the 
part  of  Isaiah  where  the  prophet  is  working  most  strenu- 
ously to  bring  princes  and  leaders  to  their  right  mind,  as 
they  are  nervously  groping  for  human  devices  against  the 
Assyrian  peril  now  imminent.  Whether  the  timid  piety 
and  sincerity  of  Hezekiah  did  anything  to  color  the  ideal 
is  only  conjectural.  It  is  the  picture  of  a  perfected  realm 
wherein,  under  the  reign  of  a  righteous  king  and  just 
princes,  men's  eyes  shall  be  open  to  see  things  as  they  are 
and  their  tongues  unloosed  to  call  things  by  their  right 
names ;  in  other  words,  where  a  full-orbed  personality  shall 
exert  its  gracious  power  among  men,  "and  a  man  shall  be 
as  a  hiding-place  from  the  wind,  and  a  covert  from  the 
tempest,  as  streams  of  water  in  a  dry  place,  as  the  shade 
of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land "  (xxxii,  1-8).  In  this 
noble  portrayal  of  ideal  civic  conditions,  one  of  the  most 

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THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 

impressive  passages  of  the  Old  Testament,  Isaiah  of  Jeru- 
salem brings  to  its  climax  the  symbolic  undertone  by  which 
he  reveals  the  Messianic  values  germinating  under  the 
surface  of  history  and  giving  assurance  of  a  redeemed  and 
enlightened  mankind. 

IV 

The  Crisis  Met  and  Weathered.  In  the  middle  of  the 
Book  of  Isaiah,  following  upon  a  portion  (xxxiv,  xxxv)  in 
which,  as  is  his  wont,  the  prophet's  vision  broadens  into 
apocalypse,  there  is  inserted  a  section  of  narrative  prose 
(xxxvi-xxxix),  which,  recounting  the  issue  of  the  Assyrian 
suspense  and  crisis,  serves  with  eminent  fitness  to  round 
off  the  prophecy  of  the  First  Isaiah.  These  chapters,  sub- 
stantially identical  with  chapters  xviii,  13,  to  xx,  19,  of  the 
Second  Book  of  Kings,  are  evidently  from  the  same  hand. 
Whether  Isaiah  or  some  other  historian  was  the  writer,  and 
whether  inserted  here  from  Kings  or  vice  versa,  are  inter- 
esting but  somewhat  profitless  questions.  In  the  condensed 
history  of  the  Sennacherib  campaign  given  in  2  Chron, 
xxxii,  both  "  the  vision  of  Isaiah  the  prophet  the  son  of 
Amoz  "  and  the  "  book  of  the  kings  of  Judah  and  Israel  " 
are  referred  to  as  authority  for  the  more  extended  account 
which  the  annalist  does  not  profess  to  give  (2  Chron.  xxxii, 
32) ;  and  in  a  previous  passage  Isaiah  the  son  of  Amoz  is 
named  as  the  historian  of  an  earlier  reign  (2  Chron.  xxvi, 
22).  It  seems  not  unfair,  therefore,  to  attribute  to  the 
seer-archivist  Isaiah  this  section  common  to  Isaiah  and 
Kings ;  it  is  at  any  rate  in  eminently  fitting  place  and 
function,  and  quite  in  harmony  with  the  prophet's  general 
plan  and  message. 

In  order  to  realize  from  the  Biblical  point  of  view  how 
this  momentous  crisis  of  Israel's  history  was  met  and 
weathered,  we  will  remember  that  the  prophet  had  in  mind 
an  event  of  both  near  and  remote  significance,  which  could 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

not  all  be  compassed  by  visible  facts.  It  was  to  be  a  de 
liverance  at  once  immediate  and  unfinal ;  and  beyond  it, 
adumbrated  in  the  whole  symbolic  undertone,  was  the  fore- 
gleam  of  spiritual  enlightenment  and  redemption.  There 
was  to  be  in  it  an  element  felt  as  divine  :  an  enlargement 
of  the  inner  life  the  germs  of  which  were  already  acti\e  in 
the  nation.  "  For,"  said  the  prophet  to  the  incredulous  scof- 
fers, "the  bed  is  shorter  than  that  a  man  can  stretch  him- 
self on  it  ;  and  the  covering  narrower  than  that  he  can 
wrap  himself  in  it.  For  Jehovah  will  rise  up  as  in  mount 
Perazim,  he  will  be  wroth  as  in  the  valley  of  Gibeon  ;  that 
he  may  do  his  work,  his  strange'  work,  and  bring  to  pass 
his  act,  his  strange  act"  (xxviii,  20,  21).  But  it  was  not  of 
the  unbelieving  nobles  alone  that  he  was  mindful ;  not  only 
of  those  who  by  the  marvelous  outcome  must  be  made  to 
see,  but  also  of  that  hidden,  unnoticed  class  who  already 
had  it  in  them  to  believe.  In  other  words,  his  prophecy 
was  concerned  alike  with  the  welfare  of  the  realm  and  the 
destiny  of  the  remnant.  And  the  history  is  brought  to  a 
pass  where  the  interests  of  both  these  are  centered  in  his 
one  personality. 

As  the  crisis  approached  Isaiah,  by  a  tremendous  venture 
of  faith,  staked  his  whole  prophetic  credit  on  two  concrete 
On  the  Part  -issues  :  the  inviolability  of  Jerusalem  against  the 
of  the  Realm  onset  of  Sennacherib  (xxxvii,  33,  34),  and  less 
outspokenly,  the  perpetuity  of  the  Davidic  throne  and  sover- 
eignty (see  ix,  7  ;  xvi,  5  ;  xxxviii,  5  ;  cf.  Iv,  3).  Both  these 
elements  of  his  faith  came  to  crucial  test  at  different  times 
in  his  career,  and  for  the  truth  of  both  reassuring  signs 
from  Jehovah  were  vouchsafed. 

For  meeting  the  Assyrian  onset  neither  king,  princes, 
nor  people  were  keyed  up  to  the  faith  that  breathed  through 
every  utterance  of  the  prophet.  When,  in  the  early  months 
of  the  invasion  the  fortified  cities  of  Judah  were  taken, 
King   Hezekiah   tried  to   buy  immunity  for  his  capital   by 

[iSo] 


THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 

paying  an  enormous  tribute,  stripping  the  temple  of  its  gold 
decorations  to  do  it ;  a  fact  recorded  in  the  history  of  the 
kings  (2  Kings  xviii,  13-16)  and  in  the  inscription  of  Sen- 
nacherib, but  not  in  the  Book  of  Isaiah.  When,  however, 
in  spite  of  this  the  summons  was  sent  back  for  surrender 
and  arrogantly  presented,  recourse  was  had  as  in  a  last 
extremity  to  the  prophet ;  and  his  response  was  a  magnifi- 
cent message  of  defiance  and  prediction  of  disaster  to  the 
Assyrian  king :  "The  virgin  daughter  of  Zion  hath  despised 
thee  and  laughed  thee  to  scorn  ;  the  daughter  of  Jerusalem 
hath  shaken  her  head  at  thee.  .  .  .  Because  of  thy  raging 
against  me,  and  because  thine  arrogancy  is  come  up  into 
mine  ears,  therefore  will  I  put  my  hook  in  thy  nose,  and 
my  bridle  in  thy  lips,  and  I  will  turn  thee  back  by  the  way 
by  which  thou  camest.  .  .  .  For  I  will  defend  this  city  to 
save  it,  for  mine  own  sake,  and  for  my  servant  David's 
sake"  (xxxvii,  21-35).  The  prediction  was  signally  fulfilled 
by  a  miraculous  pestilence  in  Sennacherib's  army,  followed 
by  an  ignominious  withdrawal  to  his  own  land  and  eventu- 
ally by  his  assassination  (xxxvii,  36-38  ;  cf.  vss.  7,  34).^ 
This  was  the  palpable  sign  for  the  blear-eyed  nation  that 
must  be  made  to  see,  a  token  that  their  God  was  real  and 
had  them,  in  spite  of. their  recreancy,  in  His  care. 

The  Davidic  throne  and  dynasty  too,  concerning  which 
there  had  been  much  cherished  prophecies  (cf.  2  Sam.  vii, 
13,  16),  had  its  perils,  which  did  not  miss  the  reassuring 
sign  from  Jehovah.  It  was  out  of  the  conspiracy  to  dethrone 
King  Ahaz,  it  will  be  remembered,  and  to  set  up  an  alien 
in  his  place,  thus  deposing  the  Davidic  line,  that  the  sign 
of  Immanuel  arose,  which  began  the  Messianic  series  con- 
firming "  the  sure  mercies  of  David  "  (cf.  Iv,   3).    This  of 

1  There  is  some  obscurity  in  the  accounts  of  this  invasion,  with  its  two 
demands  of  surrender;  and  it  is  maintained  by  many  that  the  histories  in 
2  Kings  and  Isaiah  combine  the  campaign  of  701  K.c.  with  another  made 
about  a  decade  later,  —  the  retreat  belonging  to  one  and  the  pestilence  to 
the  other. 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

course  promises  perpetuity  in  a  spiritual  rather  tlian  political 
sense ;  but  it  is  all  the  more  real  for  that.  The  later  case 
of  King  Hezekiah's  mortal  sickness,  however,  healed  by 
special  act  of  Jehovah  (xxxviii,  i-8),  had  a  more  direct 
bearing ;  for  if  fifteen  years  were  added  to  the  king's  life 
(vs.  5)  the  sickness  occurred  three  years  before  there  was 
an  heir  to  the  throne  (cf.  2  Kings  xxi,  i).  This  manifesta- 
tion of  Jehovah's  care  and  purpose  would  be  of  great  value 
to  the  king's  timid  and  wavering  faith,  as  was  the  deliverance 
of  the  city  to  the  nation  in  general. 

The  last  note  of  prophecy  from  the  First  Isaiah  leaves 
the  way  open  in  an  interesting  manner  for  the  supplemen- 
tary matter  of  the  Second  Isaiah.  It  comes  from  Hezekiah's 
one  serious  lapse  from  devout  wisdom  (cf.  2  Chron.  xxxii, 
31)  when  he,  perhaps  with  an  alliance  in  mind,  showed  his 
kingdom's  treasures  to  Merodach-Baladan,  king  of  Babylon 
(xxxix)  ;  which  gives  the  prophet  occasion,  a  century  before 
the  prediction  is  fulfilled,  to  prophesy  the  Chaldean  cap- 
tivity, for  which  the  succeeding  century  is  to  be  a  spiritual 
and  educative  preparation,  and  near  the  close  of  which  the 
Isaian  strain  of  prophecy  is  resumed.  With  this  prediction 
the  work  of  Isaiah  of  Jerusalem,  as  we  have  it,  is  done. 
How  long  he  lived  after  he  had  done  so  much  to  meet  and 
weather  the  Assyrian  crisis  is  unknown.  Tradition  has  it 
that  he  suffered  martyrdom  under  King  Manasseh,  the  son 
and  successor  of  Hezekiah.  No  nobler  martyr  ever  lived  ; 
no  greater  literary  and  spiritual  force  in  a  critical  time. 

From  the  time  ver}'  early  in  his  prophetic  career  when 
Isaiah  named  his  eldest  son  Shear-jashub,  "a  remnant  shall 
In  Behalf  of  return,"  the  character  and  fortunes  of  the  rem- 
the  Remnant  nant,  whatever  wc  are  to  understand  by  that 
term,  were  close  to  his  heart.  In  a  true  sense  we  may  say 
the  idea  of  the  remnant  strikes  the  keynote  of  Isaiah's  mes- 
sage. This  idea  is  closely  connected  with  the  imagery  and 
terminology  used  by  both  Isaiah  and  Micah  in  wliat  I  have 

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THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 

called  the  symbolic  undertone.  It  is  of  importance,  there- 
fore, that  we  consider  what  the  prophet's  remnant  is,  and 
what  he  means  by  its  return. 

"  Except  Jehovah  of  hosts  had  left  unto  us  a  very  small 
remnant,"  he  says  in  his  introductory  chapter,  "  we  should 
have  been  as  Sodom,  we  should  have  been  like  unto 
Gomorrah"  (i,  9).  There  had  not  been  enough  righteous 
in  those  ancient  cities  to  save  them  (cf.  Gen.  xviii,  22-33). 
In  this  city  of  Jerusalem,  so  full  of  "  wickedness  and  wor- 
ship," there  were  barely  enough  to  warrant  escape  from  the 
fate  that  overtook  them.  Then,  when  the  prophet,  going 
on  to  denounce  the  "rulers  of  Sodom  "  and  "people  of 
Gomorrah  "  for  the  crass  iniquities  to  which  their  elaborate 
rituals  furnish  no  restraint,  pleads  like  Micah  for  a  plain 
religion  (i,  10-17),  and  when,  receiving  his  call,  he  feels 
the  torpid  obtuseness  to  spiritual  things  which  prevents  the 
people  from  turning  again  and  being  healed  (vi,  10),  we 
can  realize  by  contrast  whom  he  means  by  the  remnant. 
Not  those  who  will  eventually  return  from  literal  exile  — 
though  the  imminence  of  captivity  furnishes  the  symbol  — 
but  those  who  have  it  in  them  to  turn  from  darkness  to 
Hght,  from  iniquity  to  righteousness  (cf.  xxx,  15).  It  is  the 
few  who  in  the  midst  of  dirt  have  kept  clean,  who  in  the 
riot  of  corruption  have  retained  a  godly  integrity,  who  in 
the  haste  and  turmoil  of  invasion  have  kept  their  faith. 
The  saving  nucleus,  the  redeeming  element,  in  a  degenerate 
state,  it  is  they  who,  when  the  disintegration  gets  beneath 
the  grade  of  moral  and  spiritual  survival,  "shall  return," 
and  shall  be  the  hope  of  Israel. 

In  tracing  the  ideal  mission  of  this  remnant,  Isaiah,  as 
we  have  seen,  employs  the  symbolism  of  the  begetting  and 
rearing  of  a  child  ;  beginning  with  the  holy  seed  and  the 
predicted  Immanuel  child,  and  going  on  to  the  completed 
Messianic  picture.  This  is  his  idea  individualized  until  it 
becomes  the  ruling  personal  power  at  the  heart  of  men  and 

[^83] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

nations ;  an  idea  which  can  be  reaHzed  only  in  some  indefi- 
nite future.  But  meanwhile  this  regenerating  spirit  must  be 
cultivated  and  distributed.  The  child  must  as  it  were  become 
children  ;  the  remnant  increased  to  become  a  growing  and 
eventually  a  controlling  power  in  a  renewed  nation.  For 
this  he  labors,  to  this  he  shapes  his  symbolical  conceptions  ; 
it  is  as  if  the  daughter  of  Zion  were  in  travail  to  bring  forth 
a  worthy  offspring.  We  have  seen  with  what  thankless 
results  the  prophet  has  labored  for  a  sincere  faith.  In  the 
midst  of  his  endeavor  he  complains :  "'  Like  as  a  woman 
with  child,  that  draweth  near  the  time  of  her  delivery,  is  in 
pain  and  crieth  out  in  her  pangs  ;  so  we  have  been  before 
thee,  O  Jehovah.  We  have  been  with  child,  we  have  been 
in  pain,  we  have  as  it  were  brought  forth  wind  ;  we  have 
not  wrought  any  deliverance  in  the  earth  ;  neither  have  the 
inhabitants  of  the  world  fallen"  (xxvi,  17,  18),  The  spiritual 
birth,  if  hard  in  the  individual,  is  correspondingly  so  on  the 
national  scale. 

King  Hezekiah,  a  man  of  fine  and  devout  but  not  resolute 
personality,  was  a  sincere  and  consistent  disciple  of  Isaiah  ; 
and  it  seems  clear  that  he  had  adopted  and  was  trying  to 
follow  out  the  prophet's  ideas.  Not  only  was  his  personal 
trust  in  Jehovah  sincere  and  steadfast ;  he  had  sought  also 
to  win  his  people  from  idolatrous  superstition  (see  2  Kings 
-xviii,  3-6).  All  that  is  recorded  of  him  is  of  very  different 
tenor  from  the  attitude  of  the  princes  described  in  Isa.  xxviii, 
14—16.  When  the  summons  to  surrender  came,  the  appeal 
that  he  sent  to  the  prophet  was  expressed  not  in  political 
nor  diplomatic  language  but  in  prophetic  terms,  the  very 
terms  indeed  of  the  prophet's  symbolic  undertone.  "This 
day,"  he  said,  "  is  a  day  of  trouble,  and  of  rebuke,  and  of 
contumely  ;  for  the  children  are  come  to  the  birth,  and  there 
is  not  strength  to  bring  forth.  It  may  be  Jehovah  thy  God 
will  hear  the  words  of  Rabshakeh,  whom  the  king  of  Assyria 
his  master  hath  sent  to  defy  the  living  God,  and  will  rebuke 

[184] 


THE  STRESS  OF  PROPHECY 

the  words  which  Jehovah  thy  God  hath  heard  :  wherefore 
hft  up  thy  prayer  for  the  remnant  that  is  left  "  (xxxvii,  3,  4). 
It  would  seem  from  this  that  he  shared  in  the  prophet's 
idea  of  a  new  life  to  be  born,  a  regenerate  Israel,  and  that 
his  sympathies  were  not  with  the  dominant  majority  but  with 
the  remnant.  But  the  nation,  as  such,  had  not  yet  reached 
that  assured  stage  of  spiritual  development,  that  integrity  of 
character  and  conscience,  where  it  could  afford  to  surrender. 
It  was  in  truth  too  early  for  Judah  to  enter  upon  its  dis- 
tinctive mission  in  the  world.  A  century  of  reprieve  was 
needed  for  Israel's  redeeming  personality  to  be  born  and 
reach  the  vigor  by  which  it  could  cope  with  exile  and  dis- 
persion. The  saving  remnant  must  become  a  determining 
energy  and  redeeming  element.  So  Hezekiah's  prayer  for 
deliverance  was  heard,  and  the  prophet's  intrepid  faith  was 
vindicated.  The  Assyrian  peril  was  removed  in  a  way  that 
to  Judah  had  all  the  effect  of  a  miracle  ;  ^  and  the  prophet's 
prediction  was  :  "The  remnant  that  is  escaped  of  the  house 
of  Judah  shall  again  take  root  downward,  and  bear  fruit  up- 
ward. For  out  of  Jerusalem  shall  go  forth  a  remnant,  and 
out  of  Mount  Zion  they  that  shall  escape  "  (xxxvii,  31,  32). 
The  prophecy  of  the  First  Isaiah,  symbolized  from  his 
earliest  activity  in  the  name  of  his  eldest  son,  still  held 
good,  and  with  it  the  idealized  promise  of  One  who  was 
portrayed  as  Child,  as  Conqueror,  and  as  the  King  of  a 
regenerate  and  enlightened  realm. 

^  May  not  the  passage  in  Second  Isaiah  (Isa.  Ixvi,  7-9)  describing  the 
new  birth  of  a  nation  be  a  reminiscence  of  this  wonderful  deliverance  and 
its  effect,  expressed  in  the  same  imagery  ? 


[^85] 


CHAPTER  V 

AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

[From  701  to  586  B.C.] 

WITH  the  sudden  release  of  Jerusalem  and  Judah  from 
the  long-standing  menace  of  Assyria,  in  701  b.c, 
there  came  a  corresponding  revulsion.  It  was  like  opening 
the  eyes  of  the  nation  to  the  true  source  and  secret  of 
their  welfare  ;  a  visible  proof  that  trust  in  Jehovah  was 
not  misplaced.  For  the  first  time  since  the  cloud  of  in- 
vasion and  tyranny  had  first  appeared  on  the  horizon,  in 
the  days  of  Amos  and  Hosea,  the  people  of  Jehovah  could 
breathe  freely.  True,  the  revulsion  caused  by  Sennacherib's 
retreat  came  to  a  people  scarred  and  crippled.  The  northern 
kingdom  had  fallen,  and  exiles  from  it  were  scattered  in  the 
lands  beyond  the  Euphrates  (cf.  2  Kings  xviii,  ii).  Judah 
had  been  ravaged  with  the  loss  of  forty-six  towns  and  over 
two  hundred  thousand  inhabitants  (cf.  Isa.  i,  7  ;  vi,  11,  12  ; 
and  the  Taylor  cylinder).  The  nation, -when  not  intriguing 
with  Egypt  and  Ethiopia  against  Assyria,  had  been  obliged 
to  buy  off  the  invader  by  the  payment  of  enormous  tribute 
(cf.  2  Kings  xviii,  14-16).  But  now,  for  a  time  at  least, 
the  cloud  of  anxiety  and  suspense  was  lifted.  The  people 
whose  lands  had  been  ravaged  could  sow  their  fields  again 
and  resume  their  peaceful  occupations ;  it  was  the  sign, 
Isaiah  told  them,  that  the  long  peril  was  over  (xxxvii,  30). 
Men  of  thought  and  letters  could  now  turn  their  attention 
to  the  deeper  meanings  that  lay  infolded  in  the  nation's 
strange  experience.  The  miraculous  deliverance,  with  the 
spiritual  emancipation   it  caused,  was   one  of  the  cardinal 

\  186  1 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

points  of  Israel's  history  ;  it  opened  a  century's  sound  and 
healthy  growth.  "  Israel,"  says  Professor  George  Adam 
Smith,  "  never  wholly  lost  the  grace  of  the  baptism  where- 
with she  was  baptized  in  701."  ^ 

The  revulsion  found  the  people's  heart  not  wholly  un- 
prepared for  its  purposed  avails.  Isaiah  had  indeed  worked 
An  Eniar  ed  '^^  cross-purposes  with  a  stupid  and  perverse 
Literary  Con-  aristocracy  ;  but  with  the  remnant  whose  spirit- 
ual susceptibilities  were  awake  he  was  in  hearty 
fellowship  and  sympathy,  and  he  had  their  faith  and  good 
will  in  return.  It  is  of  this  element  of  the  nation's  life, 
indeed,  that  we  are  mainly  to  predicate  the  sound  and 
healthy  growth  just  mentioned.  In  his  effort  to  create  out 
of  a  degenerate  nation  a  nation  regenerate,  it  was  with  the 
remnant,  the  hidden  repository  of  the  nation's  better  self, 
that  he  must  begin  ;■  and,  as  we  have  seen,  he  symbolized 
that  beginning  by  the  predicted  birth  of  the  Immanuel 
child .2  It  was  the  birth  of  a  forward-looking,  resilient 
faith  ;  and  like  an  infant  that  faith  must  be  nursed  and 
tended  until  its  assured  life  could  induce  in  the  nation  at 
large  a  current  of  new  energy  and  vision.  Such  was  Isaiah's 
nobly  conceived  yet  thankless  task  ;  whose  effects  could  not 
well  be  seen  until  with  the  sudden  release  from  the  Assyrian 
peril  an  encouraging  access  of  communal  faith  was  precipi- 
tated, as  it  were,  from  solution.  But  while  he  was  thus 
nursing  to  power  the  spiritual  and  prophetic  sense  in  his 
people,  another  effect  of  the  movement. was  making  itself 
felt  in  the  enlarged  literary  consciousness  which,  so  far  as 
we  can  trace,  came  in  with  the  career  of  Isaiah  and  the 
reign  of  King  Hezekiah  ;  a  consciousness  which,  touched 
with  the  prophetic  spirit,  wrought  to  revive  and  enrich 
the  various  lines  of  literary  activity,  poetic,  didactic,  and 
legislative. 

1  Smith,  "  The  Book  of  Isaiah  "   (in  The   Expositor's   Bible),  Vol.  I, 
P-  365.  -  See  above,  p.  176. 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

It  is  the  object  of  the  present  chapter  to  take  note  of 
this  Hterary  movement  from  the  time  of  its  great  initiator 
Isaiah  to  the  beginning  of  the  Chaldean  exile  —  a  period 
of  something  over  a  century. 

I.  Men  of  Insight  at  Work 

The  sad  dearth  of  spiritual  insight  —  or  what  is  called 
vision  —  in  the  Jewish  nation  of  the  time  calls  forth  bitter 
complaint  alike  from  Micah  (cf.  Mic,  iii,  5-7)  and  Isaiah. 
We  have  seen  with  what  keenness  the  latter  senses  the  con- 
trasted density  of  his  people's  mind  as  soon  as  the  live 
coal  from  the  altar  has  touched  his  lips  (vi,  10);  it  is  the 
materialized  national  consciousness  against  which  he  has  to 
struggle  all  his  life.  Later  in  his  career  he  puts  his  com- 
plaint into  somewhat  more  definite  terms.  "  For  Jehovah," 
he  says,  "  hath  poured  out  upon  you  the  spirit  of  deep 
sleep,  and  hath  closed  your  eyes,  the  prophets ;  and  )'our 
heads,  the  seers,  hath  he  covered.  And  all  vision  is  be- 
come unto  you  as  the  words  of  a  book  that  is  sealed,  which 
men  deliver  to  one  that  is  learned,  saying,  '  Read  this,  I 
pray  thee '  ;  and  he  saith,  "  I  cannot,  for  it  is  sealed  '  :  and 
the  book  is  delivered  to  him  that  is  not  learned,  saying, 
'Read  this,  I  pray  thee';  and  he  saith,  'I  am  not  learned'" 
(xxix,  10-12).  Going  on  then  to  give  the  reason  for  this 
torpid  state  of  things,  he  explains  that  their  service  of 
Jehovah  is  lip  seryice  with  no  heart  in  it,  and  that  their 
fear  of  God  is  a  theoretical  fear,  a  commandment  of  men 
learned  by  rote  (xxix,  1 3).  When  therefore  the  purpose 
of  God  comes  to  pass,  there  is  no  ability  in  the  men  of 
culture  and  intellect  to  understand  and  appropriate  it. 

A  strong  indictment  this,  and  unless  we  allow  for  Isaiah's 
prophetic  point  of  view  and  intensity  of  conviction  rather 
more  sweeping  than  the  case  warrants.  The  prophet  had 
more  supporters,  perhaps,  than  he  was  aware  of  :  men  who 

[188] 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

in  their  way  felt  the  stirring  of  the  times  and  if  not  by 
vision  or  by  creating  new  ideas,  yet  by  conserving  the 
undying  values  of  the  old,  contributed  their  quota  to  the 
volume  of  literary  and  spiritual  activity.  Let  us  take  note 
of  these,  as  evidences  of  their  work  come  to  light  in  the 
history  and  the  literature. 

I 

Isaiah's  Vision  of  Destiny.  At  the  head  of  the  list, 
however,  must  be  placed  the  name  of  the  prophet  whose 
utterances  are  the  soul  of  the  whole  movement.  We  have 
already  considered  Isaiah's  "word"  for  his  land  and  gen- 
eration ;  ^  but  his  book  as  a  whole  is  called  "the  Vision," 
and  rightly  so,  whether  the  name  was  given  early  or  late. 
The  work  of  Isaiah  is  referred  to  under  that  name  as 
authority  for  "  the  rest  of  the  acts  of  Hezekiah  and  his 
good  deeds,"  in  2  Chron.  xxxii,  32  ;  but  whether  Second 
Isaiah  was  joined  with  the  First  when  that  book  was 
written  is  uncertain.  By  Ecclesiasticus  too,  who  attributes 
the  whole  book  to  Isaiah,  he  is  called  "  great  and  faithful 
in  his  vision  "  (Ecclus.  xlviii,  22).  It  is  as  a  vision  that 
the  body  of  Isaianic  prophecy  is  known  and  valued  by 
later  generations  ;  or  as  Ecclesiasticus  puts  it,  "  he  showed 
the  things  that  should  be  to  the  end  of  time,  and  the 
hidden  things  or  ever  they  came  "  (Ecclus,  xlviii,  22).  As 
our  next  step  in  the  study  of  Isaiah,  therefore,  let  us  here 
consider,  as  we  have  proposed,^  the  vision  element  of  his 
prophecy ;  the  pervading  trait,  indeed,  which  from  the 
beginning  charged  his  words  with  power. 

To  get  at  the  enlarged  sense  in  which  the  term  "  vision  " 
is  here  to  be  understood,  we  may  glance  at  the  two  other 
prophetic  books  to  which  the  title  is  given  :  the  books  of 
Obadiah  and  Nahum.  In  still  an'other  book  too,  the  Book 
of  Habakkuk,  though  that  title  is  not  given  at  the  beginning, 

1  See  above,  pp.  167  ff.  ^  See  above,  p.  168. 

[189] 


■      GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

the  vision  character  is  prominent  (see  Hab.  ii,  1-3),  and 
the  general  tone  of  the  prophecy  corresponds.  In  all  these 
The  Broad-  books  we  notc  onc  common  trait :  they  deal  not 
ened  Horizon  ^yith  the  sins  and  calamities  of  Israel,  or  with 
her  civic  and  religious  affairs,  but  with  the  character  and 
destiny  of  other  nations  :  Obadiah  with  Edom,  Nahum  with 
Nineveh,  Habakkuk  taking  occasion  from  Chaldea,  whose 
approach  is  imminent  in  his  time,  but  really  concerned  more 
with  the  spiritual  condition  of  the  world  at  large.  In  other 
words,  their  horizon  was  broadened  :  their  vision  was  touched 
with  the  sense  of  the  greater  world  beyond  the  confines  of 
the  Judean  land,  a  world  where,  whatever  its  prestige  or 
material  might,  the  same  forces  of  human  and  divine  nature 
were  at  work  as  at  home,  and  where  as  at  home  character 
and  destiny  were  a  calculable  sequence  of  cause  and  effect. 
That  was  a  great  truth  for  the  teachers  of  a  small  and 
harassed  people  to  realize.  Of  all  these  so-called  visions, 
however,  the  Book  of  Isaiah  is  far  and  away  the  most 
luminous  and  comprehensive.  Not  only  the  earliest  in 
time,  it  is  also  the  type  and  pioneer  of  all  this  species  of 
prophecy.  This  large  vision  character  is  evident  from  the 
outset.  We  have  seen  how  Isaiah  the  son  of  Amoz  begins 
his  "word"  with  the  prediction  that  in  the  latter  days  "the 
mountain  of  Jehovah's  house  shall  be  established  on  the  top 
of  the  mountains,  and  shall  be  exalted  above  the  hills  ;  and 
all  nations  shall  flow  unto  it "  (Isa.  ii,  2^4)  ;  and  how  in 
consequence  of  the  spiritual  power  and  grace  flowing  from 
this  center  the  nations  shall  learn  righteousness  and  unlearn 
war.  This  is  the  real  theme,  the  ever-potent  keynote  of  his 
book  ;  it  projects  his  whole  prophecy  on  the  world  scale. 
He  has  indeed  to  work  with  the  civic  and  religious  affairs 
of  his  time  and  land  ;  has  to  nurse  the  embryotic  faith  of 
a  remnant ;  has  to  keep  the  city  inviolate  and  the  Davidic 
dynasty  intact ;  but  in  all  these  temporal  issues  he  keeps 
the  larger  ideal  bright  and  true,  and  out  of  them  he  evolves 

[190] 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE- 

the  wonderful  concept  of  a  Personage,  an  individual  Sover- 
eign, in  whose  wisdom  and  power  the  ideal  may  be  made 
real.  The  whole  section  of  the  book  comprised  in  the  first 
twelve  chapters  maps  out,  as  it  were,  the  field  of  this  vision 
in  its  relation  to  Israel.  And  if  in  his  generation  the  son 
of  Amoz  must  needs  leave  the  story  of  the  vision  only 
half  told,  yet  like  the  ball  of  the  gamester  he  leaves  it  in 
position  for  the  next  play. 

So  far  as  to  the  general  tone  and  pressure  of  the  First 
Isaiah's  prophecy.  The  literary  make-up  of  the  book  as  we 
have  it,  whether  determined  by  him  or  by  later  editors  and 
supplementers,  fully  justifies  the  title  "vision"  as  applied  to 
the  whole.  The  three  main  divisions  into  which  the  book 
naturally  falls  —  like  three  acts  in  a  mighty  five-act  drama 
—  are  all  led  up  to  and  culminate  in  apocalyptic  vaticina- 
tions and  songs  (chaps,  xii,  xxiv-xxvii,  xxxiv-xxxv),  all 
expanding  the  specific  prophecies  of  their  sections  into  the 
more  spacious  proportions  of  world  vision.  The  middle 
section  of  these  (chaps,  xiii-xxvii,  let  us  call  it  Act  II)  is 
quite  in  the  vision  character  exemplified  in  Obadiah  and 
Nahum,  —  consisting  as  it  mainly  does  of  a  series  of  ora- 
cles on  the  nations  which  have  had  relations  with  Judah  ; 
in  which  oracles  their  character  and  destiny  are  assessed 
according  to  the  same  spiritual  principles  that  govern  the 
prophet.  Those  nations,  like  Judah,  are  in  the  care  of  and 
subject  to  the  judgments  of  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  the  Holy 
One  of  Israel.  Such  is  the  broadened  horizon  that  with  the 
vision  of  Isaiah  has  entered  into  the  purview  of  prophecy. 

Notes,  i  .  The  Utterance  of  the  Vision.  Closely  connected  with  the 
term  "  vision  "  another  word  now  appears  in  prophecy :  the  word 
"burden"  or  "oracle."  It  is  indeed  the  first  title  of  Nahum  (that 
prophecy  has  two  titles,  Nah.  i,  i),  and  the  only  title  of  Habakkuk 
(Hab.  i,  I).  This  word  (Heb.  niassa\  lit.  "a  lifting  up,"  as  of  a  song 
or  oracular  utterance)  is  first  used  in  this  sense  by  Isaiah,  who  in 
chapters  xiii  to  xxiii  of  his  book  prefixes  it  to  a  long  series  of  utter- 
ances, all  of  the  same  general  character.   The  word  "  burden  "  is  to  the 

[191] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

word  "  vision  "  as  announcement  to  a  heard  or  seen  revelation.  The 
idea  of  vision  and  burden  is  described  in  a  realistic  way  by  Habakkuk  : 
"  I  will  stand  upon  my  watch,  and  set  me  upon  the  tower,  and  I  will 
look  forth  to  see  what  he  will  speak  with  me,  and  what  I  shall  answer 
concerning  my  complaint.  And  Jehovah  answered  me,  and  said,  '  Write 
the  vision,  and  make  it  plain  upon  tablets,  that  he  may  run  that  readeth 
it'"  (Hab.  ii,  I,  2).  A  similar  realistic  touch  is  given  by  Isaiah,  in  his 
announcement  of  the  fall  of  Babylon  (Isa.  xxi,  6-9),  in  "  the  burden  of 
the  desert  of  the  sea." 

2.  The  Plan  of  f lie  Book  of  Isa i all.  It  may  be  well  to  set  down 
here,  for  convenience  of  reference,  the  main  divisions  into  which,  in 
my  view,  the  Book  of  Isaiah  falls.  My  literary  study  of  it,  as  com- 
pleted, has  resulted  in  my  regarding  it  as  essentially  one  theme,  like 
a  sublime  dramatic  movement,  in  five  acts,  in  which  the  action  is  carried 
on  not  by  dialogue  or  dramatis  personas  but  by  the  prophet  as  a  kind 
of  chorus,  as  in  the  Greek  drama.  It  is  of  course  in  a  highly  accom- 
modated sense  that  this  analogy  of  the  drama  is  suggested. 

The  following  outline  is  here  submitted : 

Proem, i 

Act  I.    The  latent  peril  and  potency  in  Israel  and  Judah,  i-xii. 
Act  II.  The  inner  torsion  and  sterility  of  the  nations,  xiii-xxvii. 
Act  III.   The  first  onset:  the  Assyrian  crisis,  xxviii-xxxix. 

Intermezzo  and  Shift  of  Scene,  xl 

Act  IV.  The  second  onset:  the  Chaldean  experience,  xli-lv. 
Act  V.   Clearing  the  way  for  a  new  universe,  Ivi-lxvi. 

An  analysis  so  condensed  as  this  is  of  course  not  self-explaining;  we 
must  look  to  the  book  itself  for  that. 

Not  only  is  the  horizon  of  Lsaiah's  vision  hroadened  from 
a  provincial  to  a  world  outlook.  The  plane  of  vision  also 
„       ^.  is  so  much  hisiher  that  he  can  look  down  as  it 

From  the  '^ 

Higher  Plane  were  from  a  third  dimension  into  the  heart  of 
0  Vision  human  nature,  seeing  the  essential  manhood,  or 
the  lack  of  it,  in  all  mankind.  He  is  the  first  to  import 
into  prophecy  this  extraordinarily  penetrative  power  of  spir- 
itual vision  ;  the  first,  and  with  his  later  collaborator  the 
Second  Isaiah,  the  ablest.  We  see  this  in  the  remarkable 
series  of  "  burdens,"  or  oracles,  which  in  the  second  section 

[  192] 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

of  his  book  (Act  II,  chaps,  xiii-xxiii)  take  up  one  by  one  the 
character  of  each  of  the  leading  peoples  with  which  Israel 
had  relations.  It  is  not  merely  because  they  are  enemies 
of  Israel  that  he  denounces  them,  nor  is  his  tone  always 
denunciatory.  It  is  as  often  in  pity  and  promise.  The 
plight  of  Babylon  comes  first, ^  as  most  typical  and  far- 
reaching  (xiii,  xiv)  ;  and  he  has  in  mind,  apparently,  not  so 
much  her  military  ferocity  as  her  ancient  ci-ilture,  a  culture 
that  has  made  her  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  exactress 
(see  xiv,  4,  margin)  of  the  world.  The  day  of  Jehovah  is 
at  hand,  and  all  her  culture  is  of  no  avail  to  meet  it  (xiii, 
6-8);  her  plight  is  spiritual  sterility  and  impotence, —  "I 
will  make  a  man  more  rare  than  fine  gold,  even  a  man 
than  the  pure  gold  of  Ophir "  (xiii,  12).  In  the  Second 
Isaiah  this  trait  is  taken  up  repeatedly  and  pushed  to  satire 
(of.  xli,  21-24;  xlvii,  I2--I5).  Of  like  nature  are  the  in- 
dictments brought  against  other  nations  :  pride  and  arro- 
gancy  in  Moab  (xvi,  6)  ;  spiritual  leanness  and  barrenness  in 
northern  Israel  (xvii,  4,  5)  ;  fatuous  ideas  and  counsels  in 
Egypt  (xix,  11-15);  and  frivolous  lack  of  foresight  in  his 
own  city  (xxii,  1-14),  the  place  which,  of  all  others,  should 
be  "the  valley  of  vision."  All  these  he  regards,  however, 
with  the  sympathy  of  a  true  missionary  spirit,  and  from 
their  fate  extracts  some  connection  with  the  enlightening 
influence  of  Israel.  He  has  a  good  word  even  for  Assyria ; 
and  in  spite  of  the  severity  of  chapter  x,  5-19,  admits  that 
nation,  after  its  work  is  done,  to  fellowship  in  Jehovah's 
great  purpose  :  "  In  that  day,"  he  says,  "  shall  Israel  be  the 
third  with  Egypt  and  with  Assyria,  a  blessing  in  the  midst 
of  the  earth  ;  for  that  Jehovah  of  hosts  hath  blessed  them, 
saying,  '  Blessed  be  Egypt  my  people,  and  Assyria  the  work 

1  There  are  indications  (if  we  ignore  the  heading)  that  the  chapters  on 
iiabylon  are  by  an  exiHc  writer;  but  in  all  this  section  there  is  doubtless 
a  predominating  amount  of  Isaiah's  work,  and  all  is  in  his  characteristic 
vein.  We  will  remember  that  the  assembling  and  completing  of  the  book 
were  done  at  a  later  period. 

[  193  ] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

of  my  hands,  and  Israel  mine  inheritance'"  (xix,  24,  25). 
It  takes  a  vision  both  broad  and  deep,  a  vision  tolerant 
with  the  outlasting  grace  of  God,  to  utter  such  prophecies  as 
this.  And  such  is  the  vision  of  destiny  opened  and  bravely 
maintained  through  his  life  by  Isaiah  the  son  of  Amoz. 

II 

Stimulus  of, a  Royal  Patron.  It  is  in  Isaiah  indeed  that 
we  find  the  central  and  dominant  personal  force  of  his 
generation ;  but  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  a  literary 
utterance  so  mature  as  his  was  a  strange  or  solitary  phe- 
nomenon. An  author  connotes  an  audience  ;  a  new  current 
of  ideas,  a  fitting  channel  in  which  to  run  and  prosper. 
Isaiah  was  not  alone  :  we  have  already  seen  what  an  effi- 
cient work-fellow  he  had  in  his  contemporary  Micah.  The 
two  together  succeeded  in  launching  not  only  a  new  order 
of  prophetic  ideal  but  to  some  extent  a  mold  of  concepts, 
a  prophetic  terminology,  for  the  era  succeeding.  We  have 
seen  also  how,  when  the  summons  came  from  Sennacherib 
requiring  the  answer  that  should  test  Israel's  faith,  King 
Hezekiah's  despondent  message  to  Isaiah  was  couched  in 
the  terms  of  his  prophetic  vocabulary  :  "  The  children  are 
come  to  the  birth,  and  there  is  not  strength  to  bring  forth  " 
(Isa.  xxxvii,  3).  We  seem  to  see  from  this  that  King  Heze- 
kiah  was  quite  in  sympathy  with  the  work  of  Isaiah,  and 
sincerely  desirous  to  share  in  the  prophet's  intrepid  confi- 
dence, but  perhaps  had  neither  the  backing  of  his  nobles 
nor  a  large  enough  "  remnant "  of  the  people  to  make  his 
faith  an  assured  strength. 

But  the  Assyrian  crisis  revealed  only  one  aspect  of  the 
king's  character.  It  was,  in  fact,  not  his  relations  with 
foreign  affairs  and  invasions  which  stood  as  the  chief  dis- 
tinction of  Hezekiah's  reign.  It  was  rather  his  work  in 
the  domestic  upbuilding  of  the  kingdom,  —  vA^ork  designed 
to  promote  a  sounder  religious  and  moral  fiber  in  the  heart 

[194] 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

of  the  people.  In  this  he  would  have  the  inspiration  and 
support  of  the  statesman-prophet  Isaiah,  who  according  to  a 
Jewish  tradition  was  his  tutor  in  his  younger  days ;  but  also  as 
king  he  could  furnish  an  important  stimulus  on  his  own  part. 
We  have  noted  the  pleas  of  both  Micah  and  Isaiah  for 
a  plain  and  common-sense  religion,  a  religion  that  should 
A  Religious  be  neither  an  ostentatious  lu.\ury  nor  a  self- 
ciearing-up  tormenting  burden  (Mic.  vi,  8;  Isa.  i,  i6).  Both 
pleas  were  urged  in  the  face  of  the  religious  chaos  of  the 
time  ;  the  people,  especially  the  upper  classes,  being  infatu- 
ated with  a  complex  syncretism  of  idolatries  and  superstitions 
imported  from  the  surrounding  nations  (see  Isa.  ii,  6-9), 
and  their  moral  intuitions  darkened  by  mediumship  and 
necromancy  (cf.  Isa.  viii,  19-22).  There  was  sore  need  of 
a  religion  of  plain  sense  ;  and  Hezekiah's  sympathies  were 
sincerely  in  that  direction.  He  began,  it  would  seem,  with 
the  inveterate  old  superstitions  which  had  clung  to  the  wor- 
ship of  the  country  people  since  the  time  of  Moses.  "  He 
removed  the  high  places,"  the  historian  says,  "and  brake 
the  pillars,  and  cut  down  the  Asherah  :  and  he  brake  in 
pieces  the  brazen  serpent  that  Moses  had  made  :  for  unto 
those  days  the  children  of  Israel  did  burn  incense  to  it : 
and  he  called  it  Nehushtan," — that  is,  a  piece  of  brass 
(2  Kings  xviii,  4).  This  last  item  of  his  reform  indicates 
his  object :  to  clear  away  excrescences  of  worship  and  call 
things  by  their  right  names,  —  a  step  toward  the  honest 
view  of  life  prophesied  of  the  perfect  realm  wherein  a  king 
should  reign  in  righteousness  and  princes  rule  in  justice 
(Isa.  xxxii,  4-8).  It  was,  so  far  as  it  went,  a  movement 
toward  both  a  religious  and  an  intellectual  clearing-up,  an 
identification  of  religion  with  reason  and  sturdy  sense.  Re- 
actions followed  in  the  succeeding  reign,  for  old  errors  and 
superstitions  die  hard ;  but  the  hidden  effects  of  King 
Hezekiah's  reform  were  as  great  in  one  way  as  were  those 
of  the  more  famous  reform  under  King  Josiah  in  another. 

[195] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Another  important  and  very  characteristic  undertaking 
of  King  Hezekiah  is  recorded  by  the  Chronicler,  who  de- 
rives much  of  his  later-written  history  from  the  Temple 
archives.  It  was  a  reorganization,  or  perhaps  we  may  better 
say  a  resuscitation,  of  the  Temple  service,  —  since  according 
to  the  same  historian  King  Ahaz  had  shut  the  Temple 
doors  (2  Chron.  xxviii,  24).  In  connection  with  this  work 
he  instituted  a  great  Passover  celebration,  the  most  notable 
since  Solomon  (2  Chron.  xxx,  26)  —  a  kind  of  reunion,  or 
Old  Home  Week,  for  Israel,  which  was  observed  with  such 
zest  that  the  whole  service  was  repeated  (2  Chron.  xxx,  23). 
To  this  reunion  the  people  of  the  northern  kingdom  and 
of  the  region  beyond  Jordan  were  invited  —  another  indica- 
tion of  Hezekiah's  largeness  of  heart  and  good  will  —  and 
a  few  complied,  though  the  invitation  was  generally  scorned 
(2  Chron.  xxx,  i,  10-12).  This,  though  somewhat  crude 
and  tentative,  was  a  step  toward  that  centralization  of  wor- 
ship for  which  King  Josiah's  time,  a  century  later,  was  better 
prepared  ;  it  was  also  a  step  toward  that  unity  of  the  spirit 
which,  beginning  with  a  remnant,  was  destined  some  day 
to  be  the  strength  of  Israel.  And  it  was  for  such  ele- 
mental virtues  —  unity  of  spirit,  clarity  of  mind,  loyalty  to 
Jehovah  —  that  Hezekiah  afforded  to  his  people,  high  and 
lowly,  the  stimulus  of  a  royal  patron, 

III 

Treasures  from  the  Older  Literature.  Of  the  general 
literary  activity  of  King  Hezekiah's  time  not  much  is  said  ; 
enough,  however,  to  warrant  a  reasonable  inference.  A 
time  which  could  support  the  wonderful  creative  utterance 
of  an  Isaiah,  and  which  could  respond  though  imperfectly 
to  Hezekiah's  mission  of  tolerance  and  good  sense,  would 
not  be  barren  of  literary  fruitfulness  and  appreciation.  There 
is  reason  to  believe  that  in  his  love  of  liberal  learning  as 

[196] 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

well  as  of  religion,  especially  as  a  student  and  collector  of 
the  older  stores  of  literature,  he  made  his  reign  a  period  of 
intellectual  activity  beyond  what  had  been  known  since  the 
days  of  Solomon,  and  gave  an  impulse  which  during  the 
succeeding  century  rivaled  to  a  notable  degree  the  matured 
scholarship  of  the  Chaldean  exile. 

In  an  earlier  chapter,  tracing  the  primitive  differentiation 
of  literary  activities,^  we  noted  two  native  forms,  the  song 
and  the  mashal ;  forms  inchoate  and  undergoing  oral  shap- 
ing in  David's  and  Solomon's  time,  but  destined  in  their 
finished  development  as  psalms  and  proverbs  to  bear  through 
centuries  the  stamp  of  these  monarchs'  names.  We  come 
in  sight  of  these  psalms  and  proverbs  in  King  Hezekiah's 
reign  and  find  that  he  and  the  men  of  his  time  bear 
an  important  part,  perhaps  a  determinative  part,  in  their 
collection  and  preservation. 

According  to  the  Chronicler,  when  King  Hezekiah  re- 
dedicated  the  temple,  the  liturgical  basis  of  the  service  was 
The  Collect-  ^  ^^^^  choral  and  orchestral  accompaniment  to  the 
ing  of  Psalms  elaborate  ritual  of  the  sacrifice  (see  2  Chron.  xxix, 
25-28).  The  ceremonial  seems  to  have  been  observed  with 
intensified  zest  from  the  long  desuetude  into  which  such 
services  had  fallen.  Its  prelude  had  been  the  reopening 
and  cleansing  of  the  sanctuary  which  Ahaz  had  so  profaned  ; 
and  itself  was  the  prelude  to  the  Passover  season  already 
mentioned,  wherein  an  effort  was  made  at  an  all-Israel 
reunion.  All  this  was  like  a  return  to  first  principles  ;  like 
a  recourse  to  the  wholesome  traditions  and  personalities  of 
the  past.  The  orchestra,  made  up  of  the  musical  guilds 
of  long  standing,  used  the  time-honored  "  instruments  of 
David  "  ;  which  instruments,  it  would  seem,  had  made  his 
name  as  famous  for  musical  and  inventive  skill  as  is  the 
name   of    Stradivarius   or   Guarnerius   among   music   lovers 

^  See  "  Evolution  of  Literary  Types  and  Functions,"  pp.  S6  ff.,  above. 
[197] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

to-day  (cf.  Amos  vi,  5).  For  the  vocal  part  of  the  service 
the  Levites  were  instructed  to  "sing  praises  unto  Jehovah 
with  the  words  of  David,  and  of  Asaph  the  seer  "  (2  Chron. 
xxix,  30),  Tliis  introduces  us  to  the  two  men  who  beyond 
all  others  are  the  classics  in  psalmody,  —  that  blending  of 
music  with  public  praise  and  worship  which  was  the  dis- 
tinctive art  of  the  Hebrews.  The  two  names  had  been 
associated  since  before  the  Temple  was  built,  when  at  the 
first  dedicatory  service  the  national  worship  was  inaugurated 
in  a  tent  (i  Chron,  xvi,  7).  As  late  as  the  dedication  of 
the  rebuilt  city  wall  after  the  return  from  exile  they  were 
still  remembered  :  "  For  in  the  days  of  David  and  Asaph 
of  old  there  was  a  chief  of  the  singers,  and  songs  of  praise 
and  thanksgiving  unto  God "  (Neh.  xii,  46).  Thus  in  a 
very  intimate  sense  the  most  revered  king  of  Israel  was 
identified  with  his  people's  common  worship  and  sentiment. 
This  elaborate  service  of  King  Hezekiah's  first  year  was, 
to  be  sure,  a  unique  occasion  ;  but  it  inaugurated  a  regular 
system  of  worship  in  which  the  king  himself  could  emulate 
his  great  ancestor  David  and  be  to  his  people  as  David 
was.  That  he  came  to  set  great  store  by  the  Temple 
services  with  their  musical  accompaniments  is  indicated  by 
his  question  when  Isaiah  promised  him  recovery  from  his 
sickness,  "  What  is  the  sign  that  I  shall  go  up  to  the  house 
of  Jehovah  ?  "  and  by  the  Psalm  he  wrote  (Isa.  xxxviii, 
10-20),  which  ends, 

Jehovah  is  ready  to  save  me; 

Therefore  we  will  sing  my  songs  with  stringed  instruments 

All  the  days  of  our  life  in  the  house  of  Jehovah. 

He  was  of  a  pictistic  and  contemplative  nature  ;  devoted 
accordingly  to  the  domestic  upbuilding  of  his  realm,  and 
to  sharing  in  the  peaceful  and  religious  pursuits  of  his 
common  people,  rather  than  to  the  diplomatic  hazards  and 
intrigues  of  his  troubled  time.    One  seems  to  get  a  reflection 

[.98] 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

of  his  mood  in   Psalm  cxx,   5,  6,  which   I  am  disposed  to 
date  in  his  time  : 

Woe  is  me,  that  I  sojourn  in  Meshech, 

That  I  dwell  among  the  tents  of  Kedar ! 

My  soul  hath  long  had  her  dweUing 

With  him  that  hateth  peace. 

I  am  for  peace  : 

But  when  I  speak,  they  are  for  war. 

The  Book  of  Psahns,  as  we  have  it  complete  before  us, 
is  the  Hebrew  anthem  book.  The  songs  contained  in  it 
were  made  for  use  in  the  Temple  service  ;  but  whether  ex- 
clusively for  the  second  Temple,  as  critics  maintain,  or  for 
public  worship  from  the  beginning,  is  at  least  a  debat- 
able question.  Tradition  maintains  inveterately  that  David 
composed  songs  for  public  worship  from  the  time  that  he 
brought  the  ark  up  from  the  house  of  Obed-Edom  to  the 
tent  on  Mount  Zion  and  installed  Asaph  as  the  leader 
of  his  primitive  orchestra  ("Asaph  with  cymbals  sounding 
loud,"  I  Chron.-  xvi,  .5).  Concerning  the  development  of 
psalmody,  however,  from  Solomon  to  the  exile,  the  history 
is  silent ;  it  is  equally  silent  too  concerning  the  develop- 
ment of  worship  and  religious  thought.  Like  our  modern 
collections  of  hymns,  the  Psalms  reflect  the  devotional  needs 
of  the  congregation,  for  morning  and  evening  worship,  for 
spring  and  autumn  festival  occasions,  and  the  like  matters 
of  regular  recurrence ;  but  besides  this  they  reflect  also 
certain  great  situations  and  events,  such  as  dedications,  the 
coronation  or  marriage  of  a  king,  as  also  times  of  national 
distress  or  peril,  and  times  of  deliverance  from  siege  or 
captivity.  Individual  experience  or  meditation  also  plays  a 
large,  perhaps  a  leading,  part  therein,  as  some  large  per- 
sonality expresses  the  deep  emotions  of  his  heart.  Such 
songs,  it  is  natural  to  believe,  were  continually  being  added 
to,  from  sources  both  within  and  without  the  Temple,  and 
from  composers  both  ancient  and  modern. 

[  199  J 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

In  this  ob,scure  history  of  Hebrew  psalmody  King  Heze- 
kiah  may  be  confidently  regarded  as  one  of  the  greatest 
and  most  systematic  collectors.  To  his  age,  as  it  seems  to 
me,  may  be  ascribed  most  of  the  notes  of  authorship,  and 
the  quaint  musical  titles,  which  latter  •  are  so  ancient  that 
their  meaning  is  unintelligible  to  the  Greek  translators.  It 
must  be  remembered,  however,  that  the  Psalms  were  not 
collected  and  preserved  as  literary  curiosities,  but  for  current 
use  in  the  worship  of  a  later  day.  They  were  subject  there- 
fore to  continual  revision  and  adaptation  to  new  occasions ; 
to  a  great  extent  also,  as  always  in  poetry,  the  new  occasion 
would  mold  its  wording  and  imagery  in  the  more  archaic 
terms  of  the  earlier  day,  and  so  the  old  and  the  new  would 
blend  in  one  timeless  utterance.  This  would  be  the  case 
with  the  so-called  Davidic  Psalms,  for  instance ;  which, 
rising  out  of  a  time  of  war  and  uncertainty  from  enemies, 
succeeded  by  a  time  of  settledness  and  peace,  would  with 
little  change  suit  the  similar  conditions  of  Hezekiah's  reign 
and  the  years  of  deliverance  following. 

With  the  collection  of  older  Psalms  would  go  also  the 
composition  of  new  ones.  That  such  songs  were  written 
and  not  incorporated  in  the  psalter  we  see  from  "the 
writing "  of  Hezekiah  after  his  recovery  from  sickness 
(Isa.  xxxviii,  10-20)  and  the  prayer  of  Habakkuk  (Hab.  iii), 
which  latter  was  provided  like  the  collected  Psalms  with 
musical  directions.  The  prophecies  of  Isaiah,  also,  contain 
a  number  of  songs  which  in  the  manner  of  the  Psalms 
serve  as  devotional  sanctions  of  the  prophetic  vision  (see 
Isa.  xii,  xxvi,  xxxv).  Within  the  psalter  the  rebound  of 
spirit  at  the  nation's  release  from  Assyria  and  the  impres- 
sion of  awe  produced  upon  other  nations  by  its  miraculous 
character  (cf.  2  Chron.  xxxii,  23)  seem  to  be  reflected  in 
the  Psalms  at  the  beginning  of  Book  II  of  the  collection 
(Psa.  xlii-xlix)  attributed  to  the  "  sons  of  Korah."  Psalms 
cxxiv  and  cxxvi  sound  like  reminiscences  of  that  release. 

[  200  ] 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

Our  soul  is  escaped  as  a  bird  out  of  the  snare  of  the  fowlers : 
The  snare  is  broken,  and  we  are  escaped  (cxxiv,  7). 

When  Jehovah  turned  again  the  captivity  of  Zion,^ 
We  were  like  unto  them  that  dream. 
Then  was  our  mouth  filled  with  laughter, 
And  our  tongue  with  singing  : 
Then  said  they  among  the  nations, 
Jehovah  hath  done  great  things  for  them. 
Jehovah  hath  done  great  things  for  us, 
Whereof  we  are  glad  (cxxvi,  1-3). 

These  belong  to  a  remarkable  group  of  Psalms,  fifteen  in 
number  (cxx-cxxxiv),  called  Songs  of  Degrees  (A.V.)  or 
Songs  of  Ascents  (R.V.),  lit.,  Songs  of  the  Steps  ;  which 
are  thought  by  one  scholar  ^  to  have  been  collected  and  so 
named  in  commemoration  of  the  fifteen  years  added  to  King 
Hezekiah's  life  after  his  miraculous  recovery  from  deadly 
illness;  see  the  story,  2  Kings  xx,  i-ii;  Isa.  xxxviii  ; 
2  Chron.  xxxii,  24. .  The  explanation  is  of  course  conjec- 
tural like  all  historical  criticism  ;  but  at  all  events  all  of 
these  Psalms  seem  to  reflect  in  a  striking  manner  various 
phases  of  the  inner  experience  of  the  king  and  his  realm 
during  his  last  fifteen  years. 

Note.  Within  these  years  fell  the  deliverance  from  Assyria,  as 
also  some  preceding  perplexities  (cf.  Psa.  cxx),  the  birth  of  the  crown 
prince  Manasseh  (cf.  2  Kings  xxi,  i ),  and  perhaps  the  king's  marriage 
(cf.  I'sa.  cxxviii),  which  assured  the  continuance  of  the  Davidic  dynasty 
(cf.  Psa.  cxxvii,  3,  4).  Nor  should  we  overlook,  in  reading  .Psa.  cxxxiii, 
the  era  of  brotherly  feeling  sought  in  the  early  part  of  Hezekiah's  rejgn 
by  his  Passover  celebration  (see  2  Chron.  xxx,  25-27). 

1  For  this  line  I  prefer  the  simpler  translation  of  the  Authorized  Version. 

^  J.  W.  Thirtle,  "  Old  Testament  Problems,"  chaps,  i-v.  It  is  only  fair 
to  say  that  this  explanation  of  the  Songs  of  Ascents  is  put  by  Professor 
G.  B.  Gray  (Hastings'  Bib.  Diet.,  art.  "  Psalms  ")  among  "  other  ingenious 
but  improbable  suggestions "  which  he  rejects  in  favor  of  a  more  tra- 
ditional explanation.  The  present  school  of  Psalm  criticism  (for  example, 
Cheyne  and  Briggs)  is  strangely  color  blind  to  any  history  earlier  than 
Artaxerxes  Ochus. 

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Under  the  patronage  of  King  Hezekiah  also,  as  it 
appears,  the  fund  of  Wisdom,  or  mashal,  literature  was 
increased  by  a  supplementary  section  of  the  Book 
piling  of  of  Proverbs  (Prov.  xxv-xxix)  headed,  "These  also 
Prover  s  ^^^  proverbs  of  Solomon,  which  the  men  of 
Hezekiah  king  of  Judah  copied  out."  This  heading  in 
itself  is  significant  for  the  light  it  throws  on  the  date  and 
make-up  of  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  and  on  the  develop- 
ment of  this  strain  of  literature. 

The  Book  of  Proverbs,  as  this  heading  implies,  is  a  com- 
piled collection,  made  up  of  detached  utterances  of  practical 
wisdom  and  sagacity,  doubtless  gathered  from  many  sources 
and  centens.  and  making  no  claim  to  original  composition 
except  such  as  is  implied  in  the  general  attribution  to  Solo- 
mon. We  have  seen  in  an  earlier  chapter^  in  what  sense 
the  term  "  of  Solomon  "  is  to  be  taken  ;  the  mashals  of 
this  type  are  Solomonic  in  much  the  same  sense  as  the 
Psalms  are  Davidic.  In  continuing  to  compile  Solomonic 
proverbs  two  and  a  half  centuries  after  Solomon,  the  men 
of  Hezekiah  were  confessedly  adding  to  a  collection  which 
had  been  accumulating  since  near  the  time  when  Solomon 
"spake  three  thousand  proverbs"  (i  Kings  iv,  32).  The 
original  heading  of  this  earlier  section,  "  The  Proverbs  of 
Solomon,"  appears  at  chapter  x,  i  ;  other  headings,  imply- 
ing other  authors,  are  at  xxii,  17,  and  xxiv,  23.  Differences 
of  style  in  the  mashals  of  the  original  section  (x,  i-xxii,  16) 
indicate  a'  variety,  perhaps  a  development,  due  to  age  and 
source.  The  Hezekian  compilation,  however,  is  more  homo- 
geneous, and  in  general  more  litcrar}^ :  similes  and  meta- 
phors are  far  more  numerous  than  elsewhere  in  the  book, 
and  there  is  a  greater  tendency  to  the  riddling  touch,  more 
being  left  to  the  reader's  thinking  powers.  This  of  course 
indicates,  among  the  people  at  large,  an  advanced  stage  of 
literary  appreciation. 

1  See  above,  Chapter  II,  pp.  85  ff.  and  93. 
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AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

The  Wisdom  literature,  of  which  the  Book  of  Proverbs 
is  the  most  typical  and  representative  product,  is  relatively 
speaking  the  secular  portion  of  the  Biblical  literature.  It  has 
indeed  a  sincerely  religious  and  orthodox  tissue  :  it  makes 
its  Wisdom  uncompromisingly  synonymous  with  righteous- 
ness and  in  its  view  wickedness  is  sheer  folly ;  but  it 
deals  with  matters  of  the  home  and  the  field  and  the 
market  and  the  gate,  and  its  precepts  are  concerned  not 
with  abstract  speculation  but  with  practical  conduct.  To 
this  end  it  relies  not  like  the  prophets  on  divine  revelation 
but  on  human  insight  and  sagacity  ;  and  this  indeed  is  its 
real  distinction.  From  earliest  time  the  Hebrew  lawgiver, 
worshiper,  and  prophet  sought  the  mind  of  God  ;  the  He- 
brew sage,  in  distinction  from  these,  has  learned  to  trust 
the  mind  of  man,  and  to  value  its  intuitions  as  authentic 
truth.  His  wisdom  is  felt  as  a  native  endowment,  and  not 
dependent  on  inspiration. 

There  are  indications  that  in  the  time  of  Hezekiah  and 
Isaiah  the  Solomonic  mashal  was  the  most  popular  form 
of  literature,  especially  with  the  leading  classes  who  prided 
themselves  on  their  superior  learning  and  culture.  It  had 
been  brought,  as  the  Hezekian  proverbs  show,  to  its  highest 
pitch  of  grace  and  point  and  subtlety  ;  its  underlying  thesis 
was  still  unquestioned.  The  human  intuition  (Heb.  t/mshiy- 
yah)  seemed  sufficient  to  all  things  ;  and  the  divine  word 
as  a  realized  source  of  truth  was  ignored.  It  was  with  this 
state  of  sentiment  that  Isaiah,  w'ho.was  urging  the  claim  of 
faith  and  prophetic  vision,  came  in  sharpest  collision.  We 
read  this  in  the  notable  twenty-eighth  chapter  of  Isaiah. 
They  had  scorned  his  austere  insistence  as  so  much  child- 
ish twaddle  (vss.  9,  10),  and  after  turning  the  tables  on 
them  in  a  wonderful  climax  of  prophecy  (vss.  1 1-22)  he 
proceeded  to  compose  a  passage  in  their  own  popular  idiom 
(vss.  23-29)  to  show  that  Jehovah  also  is  "wonderful  in 
counsel,  and  excellent  in  intuition  "  (vs.  29).    This,  it  seems 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

to  me,  is  illuminative  for  the  literary  vogue  of  the  period, 
Isaiah  does  not  condemn  the  Wisdom  utterance  of  his  day  ; 
it  is  indeed,  so  far  as  it  goes,  a  noble  product ;  but  he 
would  not  make  it  exclusive,  and  to  its  human  sagacity, 
which  is  short-sighted  and  fallible,  he  would  add  the  divine 
faith  and  vision  which  does  not  err. 

To  the  collecting  of  psalms,  the  literature  of  piety  and 
praise,  and  to  the  compiling  of  proverbs,  the  literature  of 
didactic  Wisdom,  is  rightly  to  be  added  in  this  awakened 
period  a  new  and  epoch-making  strain,  the  literature  of 
popularized  law.  This,  however,  is  reserved  to  the  next 
section,  to  be  noted  in  connection  with  its  effects.^ 

II,  On  the  Eve  of  National  Transplantation 

We  have  called  the  remarkable  escape  of  the  Judean 
state  from  Assyrian  captivity  a  postponement  of  doom  ;  "^ 
this  because  in  the  natural  course  of  things  the  nation's 
eventual  absorption  into  the  melting-pot  of  world-empire 
was  only  a  question  of  time.  But  time  was  just  now  the 
essential  element ;  for  the  evolution  of  the  truest  Jewish 
character  it  was  like  the  period  from  infancy  to  lusty  youth, 
the  period  of  the  nursery  and  the  school.  In  the  light  of 
the  century  now  intervening  the  providential  motive  of  this 
postponement  is  clear.  It  was  in  Jehovah's  purpose,  as 
gradually  disclosed  by  the  prophets,  that  the  nation  should 
meet  its  ordeal  of  overthrow,  when  it  came,  not  as  a 
calamity  but  as  a  forward  step  and  an  opportunity,  not  as 
a  race  unmanned  and  disintegrated  but  organically  matured 
and  intact.  To  this  end  there  was  needed  this  century  of 
fundamental  education  and  upbuilding  ;  there  was  needed 
also  a  seasoning  of  trial  and  patience.  The  healthful  im- 
pulse to  faith  and  loyalty  awakened  in  the  "remnant"  in 
701  must  be  so  deepened  and  confirmed  as  to  become  the 

^  See  The  Book  Found  in  the  Temple,  pp.  220  ff. 
2  See  above,  pp.  157  ff. 

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AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

vital  and  redeeming  spiritual  force  in  the  nation's  supreme 
mission  ;  while  at  the  same  time  the  false  and  corrupting 
elements,  hitherto  so  dominant,  must  be  unmasked  and 
discredited.  Such  was  the  inner  situation  of  things  in  the 
kingdom  of  Judah  as  it  approached  its  momentous  epoch 
of  national  transplantation. 

Of  the  kings  who  from  Hezekiah  to  the  Chaldean  exile 

had    substantial    influence    on    the    mind   and    fortunes   of 

,         ludah,    only    two    need    here    be    mentioned : 

Kings  of  -^  '  -' 

Judah  after  Manasseh  and  Josiah, — a  third  being  reserved 
Hezekiah  ^^^  another  connection.  Manasseh,  the  son  and 
successor  of  Hezekiah,  beginning  as  a  boy  of  twelve  and 
reigning  fifty-five  years,  seemed  fanatically  determined  to 
restore  all  the  exotic  ""  customs  from  the  east "  which  in 
the  time  of  his  grandfather  Ahaz  were  becoming  so  rife  in 
Israel,  and  to  overthrow  all  the  simpler  and  plainer  forms 
which  his  father  Hezekiah  had  endeavored  to  establish  and 
which  the  prophets  -Micah  and  Isaiah  had  inculcated.  It 
looked  like  a  hopeless  return  to  the  sloughs  of  heathenism, 
and  doubtless  its  fashionable  prevalence  captivated  the 
shallow  minds  of  the  wealthier  classes  ;  but  its  quiet  reac- 
tive effect,  especially  among  the  land's  people,  was  to 
make  the  more  spiritual  faith  strike  in  and  become  more 
deeply  rooted.  We  can  justly  infer  this  from  the  fact 
that  Manasseh  resorted  to  persecution  of  the  prophets,  his 
fanaticism  even  extending  to  bloodshed  ;  for  persecution, 
the  child  of  fear,  connotes  something  substantial  to  per- 
secute. The  sterling  mind  of  the  people  was  evidently 
becoming  formed  and  enlightened ;  Isaiah's  impassioned 
eloquence  had  not  been  in  vain.  Meanwhile  the  land  was 
still  under  tribute  to  Assyria  ;  and  the  Chronicler  records 
(2  Chron.  xxxiii,  10-13)  that  Manasseh,  taken  in  chains 
to  Babylon,  humbled  himself  before  Jehovah,  was  restored 
to  Jerusalem,  and  "  knew  that  Jehovah  he  was  God  "  (2 
Chron.    xxxiii,    18).     The    prayer   that    he    offered    in    his 

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penitence,  or  at  least  one  purporting  to  be  his,  is  given  in 
the  Apocrypha.  He  apparently  did  nothing,  however,  to 
break  up  the  chaos  of  religious  syncretism  that  he  had 
done  so  much  to  promote  ;  he  became,  perhaps,  a  kind  of 
religious  connoisseur,  ready  to  welcome  whole  pantheons 
of  deities  and  to  experiment  with  whole  systems  of  divination 
and  necromancy  (cf.  2  Kings  xxi,  3-6  ;  2  Chron.  xxxiii, 
3-6).  In  his  reign  the  fascinating  influence  of  the  world- 
prevailing  idolatrous  cults  seems  to  have  reached  its  height ; 
amounting,  in  the  king's  case,  to  a  fanatical  obsession 
not  unlike  the  modern  craze  for  exotic  religions,  only 
more  sincere. 

But  his  reign  marked  also,  as  some  signs  indicate,  the 
turn  of  the  tide.  The  long  and  inveterate  hankering  for 
the  crude  idolatries  of  the  nations,  which  had  occasioned 
Israel's  hardest  spiritual  fight,  was  weakening.  To  the 
matter-of-fact  Jewish  mind,  which  could  be  brought  to 
discard  the  nation's  most  venerated  symbol  as  "a  piece 
of  brass  "  (cf.  2  Kings  xviii,  4),  the  elaborate  inanities  of 
heathenism  of  which  Jerusalem  was  full  were  becoming 
a  surfeit  and  a  drug.  To  be  sure,  time  was  needed  and 
ripening  good  sense  to  cast  their  idols  "'  to  the  moles  and 
to  the  bats  "  (cf.  Isa.  ii,  20),  for  they  were  idols  of  silver 
and  gold,  and  vested  interests  were  bound  up  with  them  ; 
but  in  the  reign  of  Josiah,  w^ho  after  Amon's  two  years' 
reign  was  brought  to  the  throne  by  the  people  of  the  land 
(2  Kings  xxi,  24),  the  whole  tone  and  atmosphere  of  the 
realm  seems  to  have  undergone  a  wholesome  change. 
There  was  a  growing  disposition  to  "  ask  for  the  old 
paths,  wherein  is  the  good  way "  (cf.  Jer.  vi,  16).  Josiah 
was  only  eight  years  old  when  he  began  to  reign ;  but  his 
early  training  fell  into  the  careful  hands  of  priests  and 
seers ;  and  the  fact  that  he  owed  his  throne  not  to  court 
management  but  to  the  people  of  the  land  seems  to  indi- 
cate that  the  more  sterling  and  sincere  element  dominated 

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AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

during  his  years  of  nonage.  The  saner  mind  of  Israel 
was  escaping  from  foreign  influences  and  coming  to  itself. 
Accordingly,  in  the  eighteenth  year  of  his  reign,  while  he 
was  still  a  young  man,  Josiah  was  moved  to  repair  the 
Temple  and  in  place  of  the  showy  and  luxurious  idolatries 
reinstate  the  simpler  time-honored  worship.  Of  the  book 
found  in  the  Temple,  and  its  momentous  effect  on  the 
people's  subsequent  life,  the  next  section  is  the  place  to 
speak. ^  Of  the  man  himself,  his  personality  imbued  with 
piety  and  faith,  we  may  say  it  made  his  reign  one  of  the 
great  landmarks  in  Israel's  history,  causing  him  to  be 
reckoned  as  one  of  the  three  blameless  kings  of  Judah.^ 
It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  faith  and  piety,  though 
ever  so  blameless,  cannot  safely  ignore  wisdom  and  sound 
judgment.  This  was  the  simple  but  costly  lesson  that  the 
Jewish  people,  in  this  stage  of  their  new-born  trust  in 
Jehovah,  had  to  learn.  .  In  an  ill-advised  expedition  against 
Pharaoh-necoh,  as  the  latter  was  on  his  way  through 
northern  Palestine  in  a  campaign  against  Assyria,  he  was 
slain  at  Megiddo  (2  Kings  xxiii,  29,  30)  ;  an  event  which, 
though  causing  an  unspeakable  shock  of  sorrow,  was  of 
deep  service  in  divorcing  the  people's  faith  from  super- 
stition, and  thus  an  important  element  in  the  progress  of 
"Jehovah's  work,  his  strange  work." 

With  this  sketch  of  the  times  in  mind,  we  have  now 
to  consider  the  literary  products  of  the  century  intervening 
between  the  death  of  Isaiah  and  the  Chaldean  exile. 
We  will  begin  with  the  prophetic  strain  broached  by  the 
northern  prophets  and  carried  on  by  Micah  and  Isaiah,  the 
strain  of  avowed  preparation  for  the  destiny  to  come. 

^  "  The  Hook  Found  in  the  Temple,"  pp.  220  ff. 

2  "  Except  David  and  Hezekiah  and  Josiah,  all  committed  trespas.s  : 
for  they  forsook  the  law  of  the  Most  High  ;  the  kings  of  Judah  failed  " 
(Ecclus.  xlix,  4,  with  which  cf.  2  Kings  xxiii,  25). 

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Prophets  of  the  Dies  Irae.  "Dies  irae,  dies  ilia"  is  the 
Vulgate  rendering  of  a  clause  in  Zephaniah  (Zeph.  i,  15)  — 
a  clause  made  memorable  in  literature  and  music  as  the 
first  line  of  a  celebrated  medieval  hymn  by  Thomas  of 
Celano.^  It  expresses  in  briefest  compass  what  we  may 
call  the  watchword  of  the  prophetic  order,  putting  into 
one  severe  assertion  the  apocalyptic  presage  which  from 
the  beginning  loomed  with  greater  or  less  vividness  before 
the  literary  prophets,  A  blunt  watchword  of  this  kind  was 
needed.  The  inveterate  tendency  of  the  Hebrew  race  was 
to  presume  on  their  distinction  as  the  covenant  people  of 
Jehovah,  and  to  define,  or  rather  to  assume  their  destiny  in 
terms  of  conquest,  prosperity,  immunity  —  a  careless  con- 
fidence which  eclipsed  their  true  mission  in  the  earth  and 
ministered  only  to  worldliness  and  moral  indifference.  It 
must  accordingly  be  the  business  of  the  prophets  from 
the  beginning  to  disabuse  the  people's  mind  of  this  self- 
pleasing  notion.  We  see  this  in  one  of  the  earliest  of  the 
prophetic  warnings,  given  by  Amos  when  the  northern 
kingdom  was  at  the  height  of  its  prosperity.  ""  Woe  unto 
you,"  he  says,  "  that  desire  the  day  of  Jehovah  !  Where- 
fore would  ye  have  the  day  of  Jehovah  .''  It  is  darkness, 
and  not  light"  (Amos  v,  18).  Joel  also  in  Judah,  drawing 
from  the  portent  of  the  locust  plague,  exclaims,  "'  Alas 
for  the  day !  for  the  day  of  Jehovah  is  at  hand,  and  as 
destruction  from  the  Almighty  shall  it  come"  (Joel  i,  15); 
a  warning  which  is  repeated  in  Isaiah's  oracle  against 
Babylon  (Isa.  xiii,  6).  It  is  natural,  perhaps,  that  the  first 
vision  of  that  day  should  lie  within  the  horizon  of  Israel's 
fortunes;  as  Jeremiah  expresses  it,  "Alas!  for  that  day  is 
great,  so  that  none  is  like  it :  it  is  even  the  time  of  Jacob's 

*  "  Dies  itae,  dies  ilia, 

Solvet  sa^clum  in  favilla, 
Teste  David  cum  Sibylla." 

[  208  ] 


aftp:r  the  reprieve 

trouble ;  but  he  shall  be  saved  out  of  it "  (Jer.  xxx,  7). 
But  as  the  day  draws  near  the  vision  enlarges  ;  its  apoca- 
lyptic character  emerges  more  to  light,  until  these  three 
traits  of  it  stand  out :  first,  the  day  of  Jehovah  is  not 
bounded  by  the  captivity,  but  only  begins  with  that  ; 
second,  it  is  not  confined  to  Israel  but  is  due  upon  all 
the  nations ;  and  third,  its  wrath  and  destructive  char- 
acter are  only  the  prelude  to  an  era  of  construction  and 
righteousness  and  peace.  And  with  this  consummation 
assured  the  prophetic  vision  fades. 

Of  all  the  prophets  who  have  dealt  with  the  coming  day 
of  Jehovah,  Isaiah  is  incomparably  the  most  lucid  and  dis- 
criminating ;  it  is  this  quality  that  makes  his  prophecy  so 
truly  a  vision.  With  his  keen  spiritual  sympathy  he  detects 
under  the  defects  of  humanity  its  germinal  redeeming  traits, 
and  under  the  just  wrath  of  Jehovah  his  healing  mercy 
(cf.  Isa.  xix,  22).  The  others,  sensitive  to  the  wickedness 
that  ■  precipitates  the  doom,  see  little  ahead  but  undiffer- 
entiated wrath.  They  are  like  a  kind  of  echo  or  aftermath 
of  what  the  greater  prophets  have  broached  ;  giving  their 
messages  at  various  times  during  the  century  succeeding 
the  reprieve,  as  the  day  of  Jehovah,  becoming  more  immi- 
nent, casts  its  shadow  before. 

Without  attempting  to  fix  exact  times  or  specific  occa- 
sions, let  us  endeavor  briefly  to  characterize  the  prophets 
who  from  Isaiah  to  Jeremiah  contributed  to  the  literature. 

With  a  figure  that  reminds  one  of  Diogenes,  but  in  a 

very   different    mood,    Zephaniah,    a    lineal   descendant   of 

Hezekiah,  asserts  Jehovah's  purpose  to  unearth 
Zephaniah:  ,       n      1  i-    ,  1  •   1     1  •  ,     1     ,  •  •       , 

Encountering  ^  deadly  blight  which  has  mvaded  the  spiritual 

Religious        life  of  Jerusalem,  perhaps   as   a   reactive   result 

of  the  uncertain  strife  of  cults  and  creeds  that 

must  have  confused  the  fanatical   reign  of  Manasseh   and 

the   obstinate    heathenism    of   Amon.     His   prophecy   dates 

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from  "the  days  of  Josiah  the  son  of  Amon  king  of 
Judah"  (i,  i),  when  the  king,  the  priests,  and  the  prophets 
were  strugghng  to  make  a  purer  rehgious  truth  prevail. 
But  there  was  a  formidable  element  which  only  the  terrors 
of  a  dies  irce  could  move,  and  it  is  against  this  class  of 
the  people  that  the  prophet  brings  his  indictment.  "And 
it  shall  come  to  pass  at  that  time,"  is  Jehovah's  word, 
"that  I  will  search  Jerusalem  with  lamps;  and  I  will 
punish  the  men  that  are  settled  on  their  lees,  that  say  in 
their  heart,  Jehovah  will  not  do  good,  neither  will  he  do 
evil"  (i,  12).  Men  to  whom  their  God  has  no  moral 
meaning ;  such  were  more  abhorrent  to  sound  sense  in 
Zephaniah's  day  than  in  ours.  From  the  general  attitude 
of  his  prophecy  we  know  whom  he  has  in  mind  :  men  of 
the  leading  and  fashionable  classes,  "the  princes,  and 
the  king's  sons,  and  all  such  as  are  clothed  with  foreign 
apparel  "  (i,  8)  ;  whose  pride  of  wealth  or  station  or  exotic 
culture  has  atrophied  their  religious  sense.  For  such  men, 
"  settled  on  their  lees  "  in  a  religion  that  means  nothing, 
a  day  of  wrath,  portentous  with  glooms  and  alarms,  is  im- 
pending. He  describes  the  day,  as  do  other  prophets,  in 
lurid  terms  of  sight  and  sense  ;  such  belong  to  his  apoca- 
lyptic idiom ;  but  the  fact  that  he  is  seeking  thereby  to 
rouse  a  dead  conscience  shows  that  the  calamity  he  sees 
has  more  than  a  military  or  political  meaning. 

More  also  than  a  meaning  for  Jerusalem  and  Judea 
alone.  The  day  will  overtake  the  surrounding  nations  as 
well,  Philistia  and  Moab  and  Ammon  and  Ethiopia,  and 
at  the  head  of  them  Assyria  with  its  splendid  capital 
Nineveh,  "  the  joyous  city  that  dwelt  carelessly,  that  said 
in  her  heart,  I  am,  and  there  is  none  beside  me"  (ii,  15). 
It  is  a  cosmopolitan  mess ;  and  with  the  pervading  un- 
moral sentiment  born  of  pride  and  luxury  these  men  on 
their  lees  are  involved.  And  the  terror  of  the  day  for 
them  all  will  be  the  evident  sovereignty  of  the  God  whom 

[210] 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

their  contempt  and  reproaches,  directed  against  his  people, 
have  outraged.  "  Jehovah  will  be  terrible  unto  them  ;  for 
he  will  famish  all  the  gods  of  the  earth  ;  and  men  shall 
worship  him,  every  one  from  his  place,  even  all  the  isles 
of  the  nations"  (ii,  ii).  To  "famish  all  the  gods  of  the 
earth,"  such  is  His  purpose  as  disclosed  to  the  gi-owing 
insight  of  the  prophets ;  and  Zephaniah  publishes  this 
purpose  just  when,  after  a  long  infatuation  with  exotic 
cults  and  customs,  they  have  well-nigh  starved  the  knowl- 
edge and  worship  of  Jehovah.  The  men  of  mark  in  the 
nation  have  earned  a  day  of  darkness  and  not  light. 

In  dealing  with  this  class  Zephaniah  maintains  with 
steadfast  clearness,  as  offset  to  their  negativism,  the  same 
prophetic  strain  in  which  Isaiah  and  Micah  launched  their 
prophecies  a  century  before.  His  plea,  like  theirs,  is  for 
a  plain  and  vital  religion,  and  for  the  wholesome  spirit  of 
the  remnant.  "  Gather  yourselves  together,"  he  says, 
"yea,  gather  together,  O  nation  that  hath  no  longing ;  ^ 
before  the  decree  bring  forth  (the  day  passeth  as  the 
chaff),  before  the  fierce  anger  of  Jehovah  come  upon  you, 
before  the  day  of  Jehovah's  anger  come  upon  you.  Seek 
ye  Jehovah,  all  ye  meek  of  the  earth,  that  have  kept  his 
ordinances ;  seek  righteousness,  seek  meekness :  it  may 
be  that  ye  will  be  hid  in  the  day  of  Jehovah's  anger " 
(ii,  1-3).  That  is  the  nation's  simple  but  sufficing  safe- 
guard against  the  peril  to  come.  And  that  spirit  will  be 
embodied  in  a  class  which  is  already  making  itself  felt  as 
a  leavening  and  integrating  power  in  the  nation.  "  I  will 
leave  in  the  midst  of  thee  an  afflicted  and  poor  people, 
and  they  shall  take  refuge  in  the  name  of  Jehovah.  The 
remnant  of  Israel  shall  not  do  iniquity,  nor  speak  lies ; 
neither  shall  a  deceitful  tongue  be  found  in  their  mouth  ; 
for  they  shall  feed  and  lie  down,  and  none  shall  make 
them  afraid"   (iii,    12,    13).     With  this  promise  made,  the 

1  So  read,  according  to  ii,  i,  margin. 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

prophecy  which  began  with  stern  predictions  of  woe  ends 
with  a  song  (iii,  14-20),  in  which  the  large  destiny  of 
Israel,  to  be  "a  name  and  a  praise  among  all  the  peoples 
of  the  earth  "  (iii,  20),  obliterates  the  day  of  wrath. 

"'  Behold,    upon    the    mountains    the    feet   of    him   that 

bringeth   good   tidings,    that   publisheth    peace !    Keep  thy 

feasts,    O   Judah,    perform    thy   vows ;    for    the 

Describing      wickcd   one   shall  no   more   pass  through  thee ; 

the  Doom        he  is  Utterly  cut  off"  (Nah.  i,  i  5  ;  cf.  Isa.  Iii,  7). 

of  Nineveh        ^^  .  .,,.  .  riri 

One  can  miagme  with  what  mtensity  of  relief  the 
prophet  Nahum  could  make  this  announcement  to  his  peo- 
ple, when  he  became  aware  that  the  great  city  Nineveh,  so 
long  the  hard  tyrant  of  the  world,  was  doomed.  To  the  large 
prophetic  sense  this  event  marked  the  actual  dawn  of  the 
momentous  day  of  Jehovah,  big  with  fate  for  the  nations  ; 
and  the  vision  of  it  —  for  this  book,  it  will  be  noted,  is 
"the  vision  of  Nahum  the  Elkoshite "  —  recalled  from 
the  past  the  correlative  vision  of  Isaiah.  A  century  before, 
when  the  Assyrian  hordes  first  overran  the  Holy  Land,  sub- 
jugating the  kingdom  of  Lsrael  and  all  but  overwhelming 
Judah,  Isaiah  had  with  keen  presage  mapped  out,  as  it 
were,  the  ultimate  meaning  of  it  all  (see  Isa.  x,  5-27). 
The  Assyrian,  he  maintained,  was  just  "the  rod  of 
Jehovah's  anger,"  who,  while  seeking  but  his  own  brutal 
and  predatory  ends,  was  unwittingly  working  out  the  severe 
but  salutary  design  of  Jehovah  by  bringing  a  needed  chas- 
tisement and  discipline  upon  the  two  houses  of  Israel ; 
and  whose  yoke,  when  his  oppressive  work  was  done, 
would  be  lifted  from  Israel's  neck  (Isa.  x,  27).  And  now, 
to  the  spiritual  insight  of  Nahum,  the  hour  of  deliverance 
had  struck.  "  Though  I  have  afflicted  thee,"  he  assures 
his  pjople,  "  I  will  afflict  thee  no  more.  And  now  will  I 
break  his  yoke  from  off  thee,  and  will  burst  thy  bonds 
in  sunder "  (i,    12,    13). 

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.     AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

What  was  the  real  nature  of  the  yoke  so  soon  to  be 
Hfted  appears  from  Jehovah's  word,  "  Out  of  the  house  of 
thy  gods  will  I  cut  off  the  graven  image  and  the  molten 
image "  (i,  14),  and  from  the  prophet's  exhortation  ap- 
pended to  his  good  tidings,  "  Keep  thy  feasts,  O  Judah, 
perform  thy  vows"  (i,  15),  —  in  other  words,  be  free  to 
resume  the  native  and  congenial  religious  customs.  The 
yoke  of  exotic  cults  had  long  been  a  veritable  burden  upon 
them.  Under  Ahaz  the  infection  had  been  incurred  with 
the  Assyrian  protective  alliance ;  Hezekiah  had  enlisted 
only  a  small  and  humble  remnant  against  it ;  and  under 
Manasseh  and  Amon  it  had  become  inveterate.  We  have 
seen  in  the  prophecy  of  Zephaniah  how  the  burden  became 
a  blight,  —  a  medley  of  gods  and  grotesque  rites  (cf .  Zeph. 
i,  4-6,  9),  and  a  sad  atrophy  of  care  and  conscience. 
Truly  a  grievous  yoke,  with  which  civil  or  financial  tyranny 
cannot  compare.  And  now  on  the  source  of  all  this,  the 
capital  and  stronghold  of  idolatrous  religion  and  culture, 
the  day  of  Jehovah's  wrath  has  dawned.  The  vision  of 
Nahum  is  the  oracle  concerning  Nineveh. 

It  has  been  remarked  that  Nahum,  unlike  other  prophets, 
brings  no  word  of  indictment  against  his  people.  His 
theme  gives  him  no  occasion  to  do  so.  He  has  enough  to 
do  in  describing  the  downfall  of  the  first  and  most  brutal 
of  world-empires  ;  an  event  which  for  its  far-reaching  con- 
sequences to  humanity  would  merit  a  literature  of  exposi- 
tion. Nahum's  treatment  of  it,  however,  is  not  expository ; 
does  not  deal  didactically  with  the  moral  or  motive  of  the 
thing.  Enough  for  him  that  it  is  of  Jehovah,  and  that 
under  it  we  read  the  consistent  character  of  a  God  revealed 
to  Israel  from  ancient  time  and  now  verified  in  concrete 
event,  —  a  God  who  is  slow  to  anger  and  will  not  clear 
the  guilty  (i,  3  ;  cf.  Ex,  xxxiv,  6,  7).  For  the  rest,  his 
method  is  descriptive,  we  may  almost  say  pictorial ;  I  have 
accordingly    called    it    describing    the    doom    of    Nineveh, 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

viewing  it  beforehand  in  vision"  as  if  it  were  before  his  eyes. 
He  handles  his  subject  with  the  assured  touch  of  a  master. 
The  various  stages  of  siege  and  defense,  of  the  turmoil 
of  battle,  and  of  the  horror  and  desolation  succeeding,  are 
portrayed  with  a  vividness  and  vigor  unmatched  elsewhere 
in  scripture.  Two  thirds  of  the  book,  the  second  and  third 
chapters,  are  taken  up  with  this  description.  The  book  is 
tense  and  austere  ;  we  have  quoted  from  the  first  chapter 
nearly  all  that  relieves  the  general  severity  of  style  with 
words  of  comfort  or  amenity.  In  the  traces  of  acrostic 
structure  in  the  original  of  the  first  ten  verses,  there  are 
signs  that  this  portion  of  the  prophecy  was  meant  for  a 
kind  of  introductory  hymn  or  ode  :  a  purpose  not  unfitting 
to  its  elevated  sentiment  and  style,  and  to  the  important 
portrayal  of  which  it  is  the  prelude. 

Note.  The  fall  of  Nineveh,  which  Nahum's  vision  foresees  by  a 
few  years,  and  the  consequent  transfer  of  world-empire  from  Assyria 
to  Chaldea  and  Babylon,  occurred  in  607  b.  c.  Ten  years  later  (597) 
came  the  surrender  of  King  Jehoiachin  to  Nebuchadnezzar,  which 
event  virtually  began  the  Chaldean  captivity  and  exile ;  and  eleven 
years  thereafter  (586)  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  and  destruction  of  the 
temple  completed  the  downfall  of  the  Jewish  state.  Thus  the  events  of 
the  day  of  Jehovah  once  begun  came  crowding  close  upon  each  other ; 
and  the  prophets  who  had  a  genuine  -message  from  Jehovah  were 
engaged,  so  to  say,  in  gathering  such  predictive  and  interpretative 
elements  as  would,  in  the  confusion  of  events,  make  Jehovah's  will 
and  purpose  clear. 

At  a  time   whose  date  cannot  be  definitely  determined, 

but  in  which  he  could  say,   "  The  day  of  Jehovah  "is  near 

upon  all  the  nations"   (Obad.    15),  the  prophet 

Pronouncing    Obadiah,  in  the  shortest  book  of  the  Old  Testa- 

the  Doom        ment,  directs  a  whole  "  vision  "  against  Edom, 

of  Edom  '     .  .  . 

the    neighbor    nation    of    Israel,    nucleating    his 

oracle  in  the  curt  prediction  :   "  As  thou  hast  done,  it  shall 

be  done   unto  thee  ;    thy  dealing   shall    return   upon   thine 

own  head."    The  contemplation  of  what  Edom  had  done, 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

and  of  the  attitude  which  that  proud  nation  had  always 
maintained  toward  Israel,  roused  bitter  indignation  in  all 
the  prophets.  From  the  earliest  of  them,  years  before  the 
downfall  of  the  northern  kingdom,  to  the  latest,  years  after 
the  deportation  of  Judah,  the  charge  against  Edom  was 
uniformly  the  same.  We  may  regard  Obadiah,  part  of 
whose  prophecy  is  paralleled  by  Jeremiah  (cf.  vss,  i-6  with 
Jer.  xlix,  14-16,  9,  10),  as  a  kind  of  attorney  for  the 
whole  prophetic  case.  Like  his  colleagues  he  motives  the 
impending  wrath  upon  Edom  as  "for  the  violence  done 
to  thy  brother  Jacob"  (10).  In  other  words,  his  vision 
concentrates  the  thrust  of  the  general  prophetic  mind  not 
against  any  specific  outrage  nor  indeed  against  Edom  alone 
but  against  that  perversion  of  natural  affection  which  mani- 
fests itself  in  the  ruthless,  the  inhumane,  the  unbrotherly,  — 
a  disposition  of  which  throughout  their  common  history 
Edom  had  been  the  conspicuous  type. 

Note.  T/ie  Prophets  agai/isi  Edom.  The  following  list  of  proph- 
ecies against  Edom  are  arranged  as  far  as  possible  chronologically 
the  place  of  Obadiah,  however,  being  uncertain:  (i)  Joel  iii,  19 
(2)  Amos  i,  11,  12;  (3)  Isa.  xxxiv,  5-7;  (4)  Obadiah;  (5)  Jer.  xlix 
7-22;  (6)  Lam.  iv,  21,  22  (ironical);  (7)  Psa.  cxxxvii,  7;  (8)  Ezek 
XXV,  12-14;  (9)  Ezek.  XXXV  (Mount  Seir-Edom);  (10)  Isa.  Ixiii,  1-6; 
(I  I)  Mai.  i,  2-5. 

The  prophecies  in  Isaiah  (First  and  Second)  answer  more  vividly  to 
the  vision  character  than  do  the  others,  and  seem  to  be  correlative  to 
each  other.  In  the  First  (Isa.  xxxiv,  5-15)  Jehovah  describes  the  "sacri- 
fice "  that  he  has  in  Bozrah  (a  chief  city  of  Edom),  and  the  desolation 
that  will  ensue;  in  the  Second  (Isa.  Ixiii,  1-6),  after  the  sacrifice  is 
supposedly  over,  He  is  beheld  coming  up  from  Edom,  "  with  dyed 
garments  from  Bozrah,"  —  one  of  the  sublimest  descriptions  in  all 
prophetic  literature. 

Though  Obadiah,  as  has  been  suggested,  is  the  spokes- 
man of  the  Edom  case,  he  is  by  no  means  a  mere  echo 
or  summarizer  of  the  other  prophets.  In  the  counsel  he 
gives  to  Edom  (vss.   10-14)  he  analyzes  in  a  masterly  way 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

what  it  is  to  be  unbrotherly  —  standing  aloof,  rejoicing  in  a 
brother's  disaster,  plundering  a  brother's  substance,  cutting 
off  a  brother's  escape.  Such  are  spiritual  qualities  utterly 
in  contrast  to  what  should  be  expected  in  descendants  of  a 
twin  ancestor;  and  the  "shame  that  shall  cover"  them  (lo) 
will  be  due  to  the  fact  that  they  will  succumb  to  a  superior 
and  surviving  spiritual  force  in  the  people  that  now  they 
wrong  (1 8),  Nor  is  this  all,  though  it  is  the  root  of  the 
matter.  Edom,  among  the  Semitic  nations,  was  distin- 
guished for  wisdom.  The  inhabitants  of  Teman,  its  main 
city  and  district,  were  renowned  for  it  (cf.  Jer.  xlix,  7) ; 
Eliphaz,  represented  as  the  wisest  and  most  venerable  of 
Job's  friends,  was  "Eliphaz  the  Temanite.'^  Well,  Obadiah 
says  the  wisdom  of  Edom  is  destined  to  fail  (8).  The 
secret  alliances  and  diplomacies  by  which  that  nation  has 
maintained  its  ascendancy  shall  be  uncovered  and  turned 
against  it  (5-9).  So  shall  Edom,  now  so  self-confident, 
become  "small  among  the  nations"  (2;  cf.  Jer.  xlix,  15), 
its  worldly  wisdom  futile  and  discredited. 

All  this  prophecy  of  doom,  however,  is  made  in  no  vin- 
dictive or  revengeful  spirit ;  it  is  a  vision,  not  a  decree. 
Like  the  other  prophets,  too,  Obadiah  is  constructive  ;  he 
does  not  fail  to  end  his  message  with  a  compensating  note 
of  redemption  and  hope.  "And  saviours,"  he  concludes, 
"  shall  come  up  on  mount  Zion  to  judge  the  mount  of 
Esau;  and  the  kingdom  shall  be  Jehovah's"  (21).  Thus 
his  prophecy,  true  to  its  strain  of  literature,  opens  out 
to  wider  horizons,  and  to  an  eventual  blessing,  even  upon 
the  most  inveterate  adversary  of  Israel,  beyond  the  self- 
induced  doom. 

"  I  will  stand  upon  my  watch,  and  set  me  upon  the 
tower,  and  will  look  forth  to  see  what  he  will  speak  with 
me,  and  what  I  shall  answer  concerning  my  complaint. 
And  Jehovah  answered  me,  and  said,  'Write  the  vision, 
and    make    it    plain    upon    tablets,    that    he    may   run    that 

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AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

readeth  it.     For  the  vision   is  yet  for  the  appointed  time, 

and  it  hasteth  toward  the  end,  and  shall   not  lie  :   though 

it  tarry,  wait  for  it ;  because  it  will  surely  come, 
Habakkuk:      .         .,,  ,   ,       ,  ,,      .^   ,       ..  ^        ,-      , 

Bewildered     it  Will    not   delay        (Hab.   11,    1-3).     Such  was 

yet  Faith-      ^hg  resolve   of   the    prophet    Habakkuk,   and   its 
fully  Waiting  .  T  1  1 

reassuring  answer,  when,  about  the  year  600  b.c, 
he  contemplated  the  dim  and  troublous  times  just  preced- 
ing the  break-up  of  the  Jewish  state.  His  prophecy  is 
headed,  "  The  burden  (or  oracle)  which  Habakkuk  the 
prophet  did  see"  (i,  i)  ;  hardly  to  be  called  vision  as  yet,^ 
like  those  of  Nahum  and  Obadiah,  being  an  object  for 
the  meaning  of  which  he  must  wait,  something  which 
he  saw  but  did  not  understand.  His  oracle,  accordingly, 
unlike  the  typical  prophetic  word,  begins  with  a  passion 
of  personal  bewilderment  and  doubt  (i,  2-4)  ;  which  mood, 
however,  answered  dialoguewise  '^  by  Jehovah,  gradually 
subsides  to  the  calmer  resolve  quoted  above  (ii,  i)  and, 
consenting  thus  to  wait  and  consider,  comes  out  to  that 
utterance  of  living  faith  (ii,  4)  which  is  the  grand  keynote 
of  the  book.''^  From  this  point  onward  doubt  disappears.  It 
is  as  if  the  vision  emerged  from  dimness  to  clarity  before 
the  prophet's  eyes,  and  were  the  product  alike  of  human 
intuition  and  divine  disclosure. 

The  prophet  had  reason  for  his  doubt.  It  was  the  day 
of  power  and  ascendancy  for  the  man  '"  whose  might  is 
his  god"  (i,  11;  cf.  16).  Assuming  that  Habakkuk's 
prophecy  dates  from  600  B.C.,  we  may  note  that  Nineveh, 
hitherto  the  center  of  world-empire,  had  fallen  in  607  b.c, 
leaving  Chaldea   independent  and  aggressive,   and  that  in 

1  For  the  relation  of  burden  and  vision  see  above,  p.  191,  note  [. 

2  Professor  Moulton,  in  the  "  Modern  Reader's  Bible,"  shows  lucidly 
the  dialogue  character  of  the  book,  as  also  its  lyric  elements. 

3  This  conclusion  of  Habakkuk's,  "  The  righteous  shall  live  by  his 
faith"  (or  more  accurately,  "in  his  faithfulness"),  has  had  untold  in- 
fluence in  shaping  the  religious  ideas  of  mankind ;  see  the  use  of  it  in 
the  New  Testament,   Rom.  i,   17;  Gal.  iii,   11;  Heb.  x,  38. 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

605  B.C.  Egypt,  hitherto  the  formidable  rival  of  Assyria 
and  Chaldea,  had  been  defeated  at  Carchemish  on  the  upper 
Euphrates  by  Nebuchadnezzar  king  of  Babylon.  '"  This  vic- 
tory of  Nebuchadnezzar,"  says  Professor  Driver,^  "  was  the 
turning  point  in  the  history  of  the  age.  It  meant  that 
the  Chaldeans  were  destined  to  acquire  supremacy  over  the 
whole  of  Western  Asia."  Of  this  the  prophet  is  doubtless 
aware ;  he  can  assent  to  the  word  of  Jehovah,  too,  that  the 
Chaldeans,  "that  bitter  and  hasty  nation"  (i,  6),  are  or- 
dained for  judgment  and  correction  (i,  12).  But  what 
puzzles  him  is  that  Jehovah  should  countenance  at  all, 
much  less  use  for  his  holy  purpose,  such  an  instrumen- 
tality against  his  own  people,  —  should  hold  his  peace 
"  when  the  wicked  swalloweth  up  the  man  that  is  more 
righteous  than  he"  (i,  13),  and  then  stupidly  worships  the 
net  and  the  drag  by  which  he  has  taken  the  nations  and 
their  wealth  (i,  16).  It  is  the  same  baffling  question  of 
the  relation  of  might  to  right  of  which  we  have  seen  an 
amazing  recrudescence  in  our  own  time.  And  the  prophet, 
waiting  for  the  vision  that  shall  not  lie,  is  guided  to  two 
answers,  which  we  may  call  the  divine  disclosure  and  the 
human  discovery :  first,  that  this  strange  choice  of  instru- 
mentality belongs  to  the  incredible  work  in  which  Jehovah 
is  engaged  (i,  5  ;  cf,  Isa.  xxviii,  21),  a  work  in  which  the 
destiny  of  all  nations  is  involved  ;  and  secondly,  that  this 
ravaging  nation  is  really  insane,  —  it  is  drunk  with  the  lust 
of  world  conquest  and  stupid  with  materialism.  "  Behold, 
his  soul  is  puffed  up,  it  is  not  straight'^  in  him";  and  so 
the  prophet  can  set  over  this  condition  a  might  which  is 
surely  higher  in  the  spiritual  scale  and  therefore  destined  to 
survive:  "but  the  righteous  shall  live  by  his  faith"  (ii,  4). 
Such  was  the  intrepid  spirit  with  which  prophecy  had  learned 
to  wait  for  the  impending  day  of  Jehovah. 

^  The  New  Century  Bible,  Minor  Prophets,  Vol.  II,  p.  52. 
^  So  read,  with  the  margin,  instead  of  "'  upright." 

[218] 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

Having  employed  thus  far  the  prophetic  idiom,  the 
word  of  Jehovah,  the  prophet  now  has  recourse  to  the 
mashal  or  parable  idiom,  the  language  of  human  wisdom, 
to  hurl  back  upon  the  encroaching  Chaldeans  their  atroci- 
ties of  character.  "  Shall  not  all  these  (namely,  the  ravaged 
and  plundered  nations)  take  up  a  mashal  against  him,  and 
a  satire,  riddles,  against  him  "  (ii,  6)  ?  There  follows  a 
series  oi  five  woes,  inveighing  against  the  various  phases 
of  Chaldean  aggression,  each  woe  couched  in  a  lyrical 
couplet  followed  by  a  passage  of  detail  (ii,  6  ;  9  ;  12;  15; 
19),  and  ending  with  what  I  have  called  the  stupidity  of 
materialism,  —  which  is ,  the  modern  idolatry.  Thus  the 
prophet  scores  not  only  the  Chaldean  ambition  but  the 
Chaldean  culture. 

Finally,  in  the  third  chapter,  the  prophet  who  has 
spoken  in  the  language  of  oracle  and  of  wisdom  becomes  a 
psalmist,  and  ends  his  book  with  a  prayer,  set  like  Psa.  vii 
to  Shigionoth  (a  musical  term  whose  meaning  is  only 
conjectural)  and  dedicated  like  many  of  the  Psalms  to  the 
music-master  of  the  orchestra.  The  prayer  is  expressed  in 
the  old-fashioned  form  of  the  theophany  (cf.  Deut.  xxxiii,  2  ; 
Judg,  V,  4,  5),  in  which  Jehovah's  wrath  against  the  nations 
and  his  activity  for  the  salvation  of  his  anointed  (iii,  12,  13) 
is  portrayed  in  terms  of  violent  natural  phenomena.  In  the 
realization  of  this  divine  care,  though  in  trembling,  — 

Because  I  must  wait  quietly  for  the  day  of  trouble, 

For  the  coming  up  of  the  people  that  invadeth  us  (iii,  16), 

yet  it  is  not  as  if  he  were  dreading  a  dies  irac ;  the  abid- 
ing mood  in  which  his  song  culminates  is  hope  and  joy, 
the  life  of  his  faithfulness  : 

Yet  I  will  rejoice  in  Jehovah, 

I  will  joy  in  the  God  of  my  salvation ; 

Jehovah,  the  Lord,  is  my  strength ; 

And  he  maketh  my  feet  like  hinds'  feet, 

And  will  make  me  to  walk  upon  my  high  places  (iii,  18,  ig). 

[219] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

II 

The  Book  Found  in  the  Temple.  Our  consideration  of  the 
prophetic  strain  of  literature  has  brought  us  within  the 
shadow  of  the  coming  exile,  leaving  only  Jeremiah  to  be 
considered  before  that  event  puts  the  period  to  what  we 
have  chosen  to  call  the  formative  centuries  of  the  literature. 
Before  we  take  up  his  prophetic  work,  however,  let  us  return 
to  what  was  spoken  of  in  a  previous  section,^  namely,  the 
consideration  of  "  a  new  and  epoch-making  strain  of  litera- 
ture "  to  be  added  to  the  forms  already  in  their  ripened 
development.  This  takes  us  back  from  Habakkuk's  time  to 
a  date  twenty-five  years  before  the  Chaldean  invasion,  the 
eighteenth  year  of  the  good  King  Josiah's  reign  ;  a  date 
noted  with  care  by  the  Scripture  historians,  doubtless  from 
their  sense  of  its  significance  in  the  cultural  and  spiritual 
history  of  Israel. 

The  event  that  made  this  year  noteworthy  was,  to  begin 
with,  an  event  mainly  literary  :  the  finding  and  reading  of 
The  Di  -  ^  book.  The  story  of  the  discovery  and  its  effect 
covery  and  is  told,  with  some  Variations  of  incident  and 
Its  eque  detail,  in  2  Kings  xxii,  xxiii,  and  2  Chronicles 
xxxiv,  XXXV.  As  workmen  were  engaged  in  repairing  the 
Temple,  which  during  previous  reigns  had  suffered  profa- 
nations and  indignities  (cf.  2  Kings  xxi,  4-8),  the  priest 
Hilkiah  found  a  book  that  had  so  long  remained  hidden 
or  neglected  that  none  could  trace  its  origin  ;  which  book 
he  identified  as  "  the  book  of  the  law."  He  showed  it  to 
Shaphan  the  scribe,  who  in  turn  brought  it  to  the  king. 
On  reading  in  it  enough  to  get  its  purport  and  be  greatly 
troubled  thereby,  he  had  the  book  submitted  to  Huldah  the 
prophetess,  who  confirmed  its  words  of  warning  and  censure, 
thus  giving  it,  as  it  were,  the  prophetic  imprimatur,  and 
added  a  reassuring  prediction  personal  to  the  king  himself. 

^  See  above,  p.  204. 

[220]  , 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

The  king  thereupon  called  an  assembly  m  the  Temple, 
"the  priests,  and  the  prophets,  and  all  the  people,  both 
small  and  great,"  and  read  to  them  "the  words  of  the 
book  of  the  covenant  which  was  found  in  the  house  of 
Jehovah  "  (2  Kings  xxiii,  2).  The  immediate  sequel  of  the 
reading  was  a  solemn  ratification  of  the  requirements  of  the 
book,  confirmed  by  a  personal  covenant  with  Jehovah  on 
the  part  of  the  king.  "And,"  it  is  added,  "all  the  people 
stood  to  the  covenant."  It  is  the  first  recorded  instance 
under  the  kingdom  of  a  general  popular  response  to  a 
literary  or  prophetic  message.  Then  followed  a  strenuous 
and  unsparing  crusade  against  the  idolatrous  high  places  of 
which  the  land  was  full,  the  heathen  rites  and  customs  that 
had  accumulated  since  Ahaz,  and  the  occult  sorceries  and 
superstitions  which  everywhere  had  so  alloyed  the  people's 
faith.  This  done,  a  Passover  season  was  observed  in  the 
central  sanctuary,  Jerusalem,  —  a  festival  season  such  as  had 
not  been  known  since  the  time  of  the  Judges. 

Such,  in  its  external  manifestations,  was  the  momentous 
reform  under  King  Josiah,  a  revolution  which  had  been 
silently  gathering  head  among  the  sterling  and  intelligent 
common  people  since  Isaiah  and  Hezekiah  had  labored  to 
move  a  feeble  "  remnant,"  touched  with  a  spiritual  pulsation, 
intcv  resolute  loyalty  and  faith. ^  Hezekiah's  reform,  as  we 
have  seen,  was  only  an  initial  step  ;  and  a  century  of  spirit- 
ual growth  and  discipline,  not  without  persecution,  must 
intervene  before  the  nation  could  move  to  shake  off  the 
incubus  of  idolatry  and  heathen  obscurantism.^  But  now  the 
day  of  the  new  movement  had  dawned.  The  remnant  was 
emerging  from  its  obscurity  and  so  leavening  public  opin- 
ion and  sentiment  that  the  king  could  reckon  and  relv  on 
its  reactive'  support  as  his  predecessor  Hezekiah  could  not. 
And  the  instrumentalit)'  by  which  the  reform  was  precipi- 
tated was  the  book  found  in  the  Temple. 

^  See  above,  p.  172.  ^  See  above,  p.  204. 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

From  the  nature  of  the  response  it  eUcited  and  of  the 
reformation  that  ensued,  it  is  clear  that  this  unnamed  book 
T^    .  .c  a        discovered  in  622  b.c.  was  substantially,  if  not  in 

Identified  as  -' ' 

the  Book  of  final  form,  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy ;  and  that 
Deuteronomy  jj.  (jgi-iyg^j  ji-g  tremendous  influence  and  authority 
from  the  implicit  belief  that  it  was  the  original  "  book  of  the 
law"  (2  Kings  xxii,  8),  the  essential  covenant  (xxiii,  2)  and 
constitution  of  the  Israelite  faith.  No  doubt  seems  to  have 
arisen  regarding  its  authenticity,  although  nearly  seven  cen- 
turies had  elapsed  since  it  was  supposedly  written.  It  pur- 
ported to  contain  the  actual  words  of  the  nation's  traditional 
founder  and  lawgiver  Moses,  and  beyond  these  by  only  one 
remove  the  awesome  words  of  Jehovah  whose  being  had 
become  so  remote.  As  such  utterance  it  brought  Jehovah's 
mind  and  purpose  near  as  even  the  words  of  the  prophets 
had  not  availed  to  do.  It  was  doubtless  the  vigorous  sen- 
tences of  warning  and  curse  found  near  the  end  of  the 
book  (xxvii,  i  5-26  ;  xxviii)  which  had  the  first  and  sharpest 
effect  in  causing  the  king's  dismay  (2  Kings  xxii,  1 1 )  and 
waking  to  life  the  torpid  conscience  of  the  people.  But  the 
permanent  and  steadying  effect,  beyond  that  of  any  other 
Old  Testament  book,  was  due  to  something  far  deeper,  on 
which  oldness  or  newness  had  no  determining  power.  In 
other  words,  the  book  was  intuitively  recognized  as  not 
merely  the  law  of  Moses  but  the  law  of  sane  and  whole- 
some living  for  a  people  whose  God  is  Jehovah  ;  and  as 
such  it  was  self-evidencing. 

NoTF..  The  Name  ^^Deuteronomy.''''  The  book  owes  its  name  — which 
we  do  not  get  from  its  author  —  to  the  mistranslation  of  a  word  in 
xvii,  18,  when  the  book  was  translated  from  Hebrew  into  Greek.  The 
king,  as  it  there  says,  "  shall  write  him  a  copy  {misltneli)  of  this  law  in 
a  boo'k."  For  this  phrase  the  Septuagint  version  has  io  (it'itferoitomwn 
fouto,  "  this  second  law,"  or  "  repeated  law."  The  name,  however,  is 
a  happy  accident.  "  Although  based  upon  a  grammatical  error,"  says 
Professor  Driver,  "  the  name  is  not  an  inappropriate  one ;  for  Deuter- 
onomy  (see   xxix,    i)   does  embody   the  terms  of  a  second  legislative 

[  222  ] 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

'covenant,'  and  includes  (by  the  side  of  much  fresh  matter)  a  repetition 
of  a  large  part  of  the  laws  contained  in  what  is  sometimes  called  the 
'  First  Legislation  '  of  Exodus  (Exod.  xx,  22-xxiii,  33)."' ' 

Modern  criticism  has  not  treated  the  book  as  did  the 
people  of  King  Josiah's  time.  A  disturbing  problem,  in- 
deed, has  arisen  regarding  the  real  authorship  of  our  Book 
of  Deuteronomy  and  the  time  of  its  composition,  —  a  prob- 
lem which  to  some  scholars  has  seemed  to  involve  the  good 
faith  of  the  book.  Is  it  the  actual  work  of  Moses,  which 
lay  for  incredible  centuries  undiscovered,  or  is  it  a  pious 
fraud,  the  work  of  a  much  later  author,  who  cunningly  hid 
it  where  it  was  found,  in  order  that  in  due  time  it  might 
come  to  light .?  The  gravity  of  the  problem  has,  1  think, 
been  overrated.  We  cannot,  indeed,  ascribe  the  book  as  it 
stands  either  to  the  pen  or  to  the  time  of  Moses  ;  but 
neither  can  we  deny  to  him  its  essential  substance  and 
spirit.  How  this  is  we  can  see  by  considering  how  it  an- 
swers to  the  ancient  matter  with  which  it  deals  and  to  the 
more  developed  civilization  and  culture  which  the  discovery 
of  it  encountered. 

As  measured  by  the  marvelous  effect  it  produced,  the 
Book  of  Deuteronomy  is  a  notable  example  of  the  trans- 
How  the  Book  muting  power  and  charm  of  literature.  Its  basal 
Reflects  the    ^^^qy\^\    ^g   old   as    Moses   and    the   wilderness 

Mind  of  ' 

Moses  days,  had  lain  inert  in  the  professional  keeping 

of  priests  and  magistrates,  or  in  the  musty  archives  of  the 
Temple.  We  can  see  what  the  earlier  form  and  phraseology 
of  law  was  in  such  chapters  as  Exodus  xxi-xxiii.  It  was 
austere,  remote,  impersonal ;  it  was  treated,  too,  according 
to  the  primitive  conception  of  written  matter,  as  a  thing  to 
be  stored  and  kept  rather  than  as  a  thing  to  be  made  in- 
teresting and  promulgated.^  In  this  Book  of  Deuteronomy, 
however,  one  feels  at  once  the  charm  of  a  transmuting  spirit. 

1  Driver,  "A  Critical  and  Exegetical  Commentary  on  Deuteronomy,"  p.  i. 
*  See  remarks  on  this  distinction,  pp.  14,  15,  above. 

[223] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

• 

Here  is  a  work  to  which  has  been  imparted  the  magical 
touch  of  hterature.  The  hoary  material  assumes  new  form 
and  life  ;  it  is  law,  indeed,  but  law  popularized  by  being  put 
in  the  language  of  personal  love  and  personal  counsel.  It  is 
a  lawgiver's  precepts  given  not  as  arbitrary  commands  but 
as  principles  vitalized  by  sane  motive,  reasonableness,  gra- 
ciousness,  humanity,  and  as  molded  to  the  terms  of  spiritual 
cause  and  effect.  The  aged  Moses  is  represented  as  gather- 
ing his  people  together,  just  upon  the  eve  of  their  entrance 
into  their  promised  land,  a  land  which  he  is  forbidden  to 
enter  with  them,  and  giving  them  in  several  discourses  his 
last  words,  in  which  he  rehearses  the  principles  that  for 
forty  years  he  has  labored  to  teach  them.  It  is  in  itself  an 
impressive  setting.  All  the  elements  of  situation,  character, 
and  the  primitive  wilderness  coloring  are  preserved  with 
wonderful  literaiy  skill.  Whoever  gave  the  book  its  later 
form  had  by  an  intimate  historic  imagination  so  lived  him- 
self into  ancient  conditions  that  in  reading  him  one  is  trans- 
ported to  the  wilderness  times  with  no  sense  of  anachronism 
or  discrepancy.  It  is  not  because  the  book  obtrudes  a  false 
or  doubtful  claim  that  its  time  and  authorship  are  ques- 
tioned. The  book,  we  may  confidently  say,  is  genuinely 
and  authentically  Mosaic.  Its  warp  is  of  Moses,  both  in  sub- 
stance and  in  pervading  spirit.  But  with  this  is  interwoven, 
by  the  magic  of  literar}^  skill,  a  woof  of  benignant  grace 
and  poise  whose  legitimate  appeal  is  to  a  more  developed 
social  and  political  state  than  we  can  attribute  to  the  crude 
conditions  of  its  assumed  origin.  All  this  is  due  to  the 
personal  element  graciously  interfused.  In  hearing  its  words 
we  listen  not  to  a  hard  decree  or  statute  but  to  the  living 
voice  of  a  man.  By  its  persuasive  charm  the  Hebrew  law, 
from  being  a  thing  austere,  arbitrary,  remote,  as  ages  of 
deposit  in  guilds  and  archives  woukl  make  it,  becomes  a 
companionable  element  of  common  life,  an  accessible  friend 
in  counsel.    In  a  word,  it  is  law  charged  with  personality. 

[224] 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

Beyond  this  personal  element,  however,  there  was  an 
underlying  strain  in  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy  which 
How  the  wrought  to  precipitate  and  crystallize  spiritual 
Book  fits        convictions   that  had  long  been    in    solution    in 

the  Time  of  ^ 

King  josiah  the  deeper  mind  of  Israel.  Under  their  recreant 
kings — Ahaz,  Manasseh,  Amon  —  and  under  the  inveterate 
tendency  to  ape  foreign  fashions,  the  leaders  of  sentiment 
had  been  groping  or  drifting  in  a  maze  of  exotic  cults 
and  customs,  until  their  sense  of  the  godlike  issues  of 
life,  or  care  for  them,  was  sadly  confused  and  blunted. 
Zephaniah  felt  their  plight  rightly,  —  they  were  "settled 
on  their  lees,"  in  a  kind  of  negative  limbo  between  good 
and  evil  (cf.  Zeph.  i,  12),^  This  timely  book  cleared  the 
air.  It  brought  men  back  from  the  fads  and  superficiali- 
ties of  life  to  the  simple  sanity  of  first  principles.  It 
restored  the  inherent  healthfulness  of  the  native  Hebrew 
mind.  It  renewed  and  enhanced  the  personal  sense  of 
relation  with  God,  which  was  tending  to  lapse,  and  there- 
with the  kindly  sense  of  fellowship  with  neighbor  man. 
An  integrating  influence,  we  may  call  it,  to  bring  Jehovah's 
chosen  people  to  a  definition  of  terms. 

No  detailed  analysis  is  needed  to  show  how  intimately 
the  book  fitted  the  time  of  its  discovery.  The  basal  appeal 
of  it  is  to  Israel's  self-respect  and  dignity  as  a  nation 
chosen  of  Jehovah  to  a  high  mission.  Yet  that  self-respect 
must  needs  be  tempered  and  motived, — as  Kipling  would 
say,  "  lest  we  forget."  The  people  of  Israel  have  indeed 
abundant  reason  to  deem  themselves  unique  among  the 
peoples  of  the  earth ;  but  it  lies  not  in  their  superior 
numbers,  for  they  were  few  (vii,  7),  nor  in  their  surpassing 

1  That  a  nation's  mind  may  become  rancid  and  torpid,  and  need  the 
disturbing  power  of  a  new  dynamic,  even  though  this  may  be  violent  and 
revolutionary,  is  shown  in  a  lucid  way  by  Jeremiah  (xlviii,  ii,  12),  who  ex- 
plains, in  the  case  of  the  people  of  Moab,  what  is  rneant  by  being  "  settled 
on  their  lees." 

[225] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

righteousness,  for  -they  were  stiff-necked  (ix,  5,  6).  It  lay 
in  their  pecuharly  intimate  relation  to  the  unseen,  as  a 
nation  whom  Jehovah  loved  and  delivered,  and  to  whom 
H*e  gave  in  audible  voice  (v,  22)  the  law  of  the  Ten  Words 
(v,  6-21  ;  cf.  Exod,  XX,  2-17),  and  through  Moses  a  body 
of  more  specific  enactments.  "  Behold,"  the  lawgiver  says, 
""  I  have  taught  you  statutes  and  ordinances,  even  as 
Jehovah  my  God  commanded  me,  that  ye  should  do  so  in 
the  midst  of  the  land  whither  ye  go  in  to  possess  it. 
Keep  therefore  and  do  them :  for  this  is  your  wisdom 
and  your  understanding  in  the  sight  of  the  peoples,  that 
shall  hear  all  these  statutes,  and  say,  '  Surely  this  great 
nation  is  a  wise  and  understanding  people,'  For  what 
great  nation  is  there,  that  hath  a  god  so  nigh  unto  them, 
as  Jehovah  our  God  is  whenever  we  call  upon  him  .?  And 
what  great  nation  is  there,  that  hath  statutes  and  ordi- 
nances so  righteous  as  all  this  law,  which  I  set  before 
you  this  day.-*"  (iv,   5-8). 

Such  is  the  groundwork  of  appeal  ;  but  it  is  not  merely 
pride  in  their  law,  a  law  so  long  in  abeyance,  that  the 
author  of  Deuteronomy  has  at  heart.  It  goes  back  of  this 
to  the  God  who  gave  it,  and  to  the  personal  and  spiritual 
response  which  His  dealings  with  them  have  earned.  "  Hear, 
O  Israel  :  Jehovah  our  God  is  one  Jehovah  ;  and  thou  shalt 
love  Jehovah  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy 
soul,  and  with  all  thy  might"  (vi,  4,  5).  Such  a  sense  of 
God  opens  the  windows  to  a  spiritual  feeling  and  atmos- 
phere in  which  the  crass  idolatries  and  superstitions  of  the 
less  developed  races  and  nations  cannot  subsist.  The  con- 
ception of  a  Deity  unseen  and  not  to  be  likened  to  any 
created  thing  (iv,  15-24),  yet  who  has  revealed  Himself  by 
voice  and  by  law,  gives  rise  to  the  most  peremptory  mandates 
of  the  legislation.  Accordingly,  the  command  is  to  burn 
the  images  of  other  national  gods  (vii,  25,  26)  ;  to  destroy 
the  high  places  with  all  their  trumpery  of  corrupt  worship 

[226] 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

and  conduct  (xii,  2-4) ;  and,  as  essential  to  the  purity  of 
the  rehgion  of  Jehovah,  to  concentrate  the  pubhc  worship, 
festival,  and  sacrifice  at  what  in  the  Mosaic  dialect  is  "the 
place  which  Jehovah  your  God  shall  choose,"  but  which  in 
Josiah's  time  could  only  mean  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem 
(xii,  5-1 1).  But  this  finer  sense  of  Jehovah's  being  has  a 
profound  effect  also  on  the  sense  of  the  proper  approach 
to  Him  and  the  proper  apprehension  of  His  will  and  pur- 
pose. It  makes  the  whole  business  of  magic  and  sorcery 
and  divination  an  aversion  (xviii,  10- 14),  and  removes 
prophecy  from  the  realm  of  dreams  and  trance  to  the 
basis  of  sound  sense  such  as  Moses  himself  had  (xviii, 
15-22  ;  cf.  xiii,  1-5).  In  short,  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy 
is  a  plea  for  the  simple  religion  of  love  to  a  God  who 
is  near  and  personal  (cf.  x,  12,  13),  and  for  a  wholesome 
law  of  life  which  justifies  itself  in  common  sense  (xxx, 
1 1- 1 4).  We  can  think  what  a  power  such  a  message 
would  have  in  a  nation  so  long  confused  with  foreign 
cults  and  customs,  and  how  accurately  timed  it  would  be 
to  their  inner  need,  so  like  what  Amos  had  foretold  of 
the  northern  kingdom  (cf.  Amos  viii,  11).  And  no  better 
preparation  and  prophylactic  could  have  been  devised  for 
the  ordeal  of  transplantation  and  exile  which  was  so  soon 
to  come  upon  the  nation.  It  wrought  to  make  the  true 
Israel  ready  when  the  crisis  came.  So  this  Book  of 
Deuteronomy  may  be  truly  regarded  as  one  of  the  most 
potent  and  far-reaching  books  of  all  time. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  our  Lord  Jesus,  in  his  day,  made 
very  appreciative  use  of  it.  From  it  he  deduced  the  first 
great  commandment  (Mark  xii,  29  ;  cf.  Deut.  vi,  4) ;  and  for 
all  his  answers  to  the  temptations  of  the  wilderness  (Matt,  iv, 
i-ii)  he  drew  from  its  store  of  precepts  (vs.  4.  cf.  Deut. 
viii,  3;  vs.  7,  d'.  Deut.  vi,  16;  vs.  10,  cf.  Deut.  vi.  13), 
as  if  testifying  thus  to  its  sufficiency  for  the  deepest  spirit- 
ual needs.    St.   Paul  also  makes  a  free  but  just  adaptation 

[227  J 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

of  one  of  its  eloquent  passages  (xxx,  12-14)  to  elucidate  one 
of  the  most  distinctive  Christian  concepts,  "the  righteous- 
ness which  is  of  faith  "  (see  Rom.  x,  6-8). 

The  book  in  its  present  finished  form  seems  likeliest  to 
have  been  a  product  of  the  age  of  Isaiah  and  Hezekiah, 
when,  as  we  have  seen,  literary  and  prophetic  activity  alike 
awoke  to  inwardness  and  vigor.^  When  Isaiah  had  his 
school  of  disciples  to  perpetuate  prophetic  values  (Isa.  viii, 
16 ;  xxx,  8),  and  Hezekiah  his  scholars  to  compile  the 
treasures  of  Wisdom  (Prov.  xxv,  i),  the  venerable  laws  of 
Moses,  so  long  stowed  away  in  Temple  archives,  would 
not  escape  the  attention  of  the  men  of  letters  who  had  the 
constitutional  welfare  of  Israel  at  heart.  On  account  of  the 
religious  confusion  of  the  times  succeeding  Hezekiah's  reign, 
as  it  would  seem,  the  publication  of  the  book  had  to  wait. 
There  is  no  indication,  however,  that  either  the  composition 
or  the  discovery  was  lacking  in  good  faith  ;  and  from  the 
first  its  claim  to  be  the  veritable  words  of  Moses  was  re- 
ceived as  authentic.  If  a  more  modern  element  was  recog- 
nized as  interwoven  in  it,  men  would  take  this  simply  as 
due  to  the  endeavor  to  "copy  fair  what  time  had  blurred." 

Ill 

Jeremiah  :  the  Man  and  the  Crisis.  In  the  thirteenth 
year  of  King  Josiah's  reign,  five  years  before  the  Deuter- 
onomic  code  was  brought  to  light,  and  when  according  to 
the  Chronicler  the  religious  purgation  of  Judah  and  Jeru- 
salem was  well  under  way  (2  Chron.  xxxiv,  3),  Jeremiah, 
a  young  man  of  priestly  family  dwelling  in  Anathoth  near 
Jerusalem,  received  from  Jehovah  his  call  to  be  a  prophet 
to  Israel.  The  call  seems  to  have  been  merely  auditory 
(i,  4-10),  and  not  accompanied,  as  were  Isaiah's  and  Eze- 
kiel's  (cf.  Isa.  vi,  1-13  ;  Ezek.  i,  4-ii,  7),  by  a  visual  ap- 
pearance.    Nor  was  he,  like  them,  a  man  of  spacious  and 

.1  Sec  Westphal  and  Du  Pontet,  "The  Law  and  the  Prophets,"  p.  297. 

[228] 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

imaginative  vision ;  lie  was  too  near  the  era  of  fulfillment  for 
that  (cf.  his  contemporary  Ezekiel,  Ezek.  xii,  21-23).  There 
was  nothing  apocalyptic  or  recondite  in  his  word  ;  it  was  a 
message  to  the  ear.  He  dealt  with  the  immediate  issues 
and  emergencies  of  his  troubled  time,  things  for  which 
not  pictured  vaticination  but  conservative  and  old-fashioned 
principles  were  the  proper  solvent  (cf.  vi,  16  ;  xxxi,  21). 
A  contemporary  of  Zephaniah,  Nahum,  and  Habakkuk,  he 
felt  as  did  they,  but  far  more  intimately,  the  imminence  of 
the  '"  day  of  Jehovah  "  (xxx,  7),  the  day  momentous  for  Israel 
and  the  world.  To  him  it  was  given,  indeed,  through  a 
career  of  something  over  forty-two  years,  first  to  prepare 
his  people  for  it  before  it  threatened,  and  then  to  live 
and  labor  with  them  after  the  doom  fell,  through  the  two 
deportations  of  597  and  586  b.c,  dying  at  last  (tradition 
says  by  martyrdom)  in  Egypt,  whither  he  had  been  carried 
against  his  will  and  counsel. 

In  reading  the  Book  of  Jeremiah  we  do  not  get  the 
peculiar  impression  of  a  speaker  reenforced  by  a  man  of 
The  Book  and  letters,  as  in  Deuteronomy,  nor  the  literary  savor 
its  Author  Qf  ^  cultured  and  creative  statesman,  as  in  Isaiah. 
We  feel  rather  the  vehemence  of  the  preacher  and  censor 
of  morals,  as  he  comes  to  close  grips  with  the  people,  men 
.of  the  Temple  courts  and  city  gates  and  public  places.  The 
impending  catastrophe  of  national  overthrow,  for  which  his 
whole  prophetic  activity  must  be  a  deep-laid  preparation, 
was  too  near  and  pressing  to  favor  leisurely  care  for  author- 
ship. Accordingly,  as  a  literary  production  the  Book  of 
Jeremiah  is  somewhat  formless  —  rather  an  accumulation 
of  utterances  hot  from  their  immediate  occasion,  or  of  bio- 
graphical incidents  preserved  by  a  secretary,  than  a  planned 
and  consecutive  structure.  This  trait  was  natural  enough, 
perhaps,  from  the  way  in  which  the  book  was  composed. 
Its  substance  consists  of  public  utterances  or  rhapsodies 
which  the  prophet  had  delivered  at  various  times  and  carried 

[229] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

in  mind  from  the  beginning  of  his  career,  and  then,  in  the 
fourth  year  of  King  Jehoiakim,  dictated  to  Baruch,  in  the 
hope  that  with  such  repetition  in  written  form  they  would 
have  a  better  chance  to  effect  their  purpose  (xxxvi,  1-4  ; 
cf.  vss.  17,  18).  The  first  copy,  however,  on  being  read  to 
the  king,  was  burned  leaf  by  leaf  by  the  king  himself  ;  who 
thereby  incurred  a  severe  personal  oracle  for  his  impiety 
(xxxvi,  20-31).  "Then  took  Jeremiah  another  roll,  and 
gave  it  to  Baruch  the  scribe,  the  son  of  Neriah,  who  wrote 
therein  from  the  mouth  of  Jeremiah  all  the  words  of  the 
book  which  Jehoiakim  king  of  Judah  had  burned  in  the 
fire  ;  and  there  were  added  besides  unto  them  many  like 
words"  (xxxvi,  32).  It  seems  clear  that  the  book  did  not 
lose  in  vigor  by  rewriting. 

The  style  of  the  book,  more  especially  of  the  parts 
containing  the  prophet's  earlier  rhapsodies,  is  tense  and 
impassioned,  well-nigh  to  excess ;  nor  is  it  wanting  in  the 
cogency  of  lucid  figure  and  telling  phrase,  a  quality  which 
sends  his  words  straight  to  their  aim,  evincing  not  only  the 
fervid  preacher  but  the  born  master  of  diction.  Many  of 
the  most  cherished  and  vital  passages  of  Scripture  are  his. 
At  the  same  time,  as  one  reads  the  book  at  length,  one 
becomes  aware  of  a  certain  lengthy  and  profuse  tendency, 
a  fault  perhaps,  as  we  see  in  modern  times,  of  a  dictated 
style.  Discount  has  to  be  made  also  for  the  too  unrelieved 
monotony  of  denunciation  and  lament,  the  like  of  which  has 
imported  into  our  modern  vocabulary  the  word  "jeremiad." 
For  the  rest,  the  parts  of  the  book  relating  to  affairs  after 
Jehoiakim's  fourth  year  are  largely  the  work  of  Baruch  the 
scribe,  and  are  to  great  proportion  in  narrative  prose. 

It  is  not  merely  by  his  literary  power,  however,  but  far 
more  by  his  personality,  that  Jeremiah  has  left  his  indelible 
impress  on  the  heart  of  the  ages.  His  was  a  personality 
compounded  to  a  quite  wonderful  degree  of  tenderness  and 
strength,  and  revealed  through  a  lifelong  experience  truly 

[230  J 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

• 
tragic.  Of  a  sensitive,  self-effacing  nature,  which  shrank 
from  anything  harsh  or  arbitrary,  and  which  longed  for 
sympathy  and  friendship  (cf.  xv,  lo,  17,  18),  yet  a  deeper 
impulsion  within  him  (cf.  xx,  9)  caused  him  to  be  Jehovah's 
fitly  chosen  instrument  urging  a  message  which,  whether 
in  reprimand  or  in  wise  counsel,  earned  him  only  bitter 
strife  and  opposition.  "  For  behold,"  was  Jehovah's  com- 
missioning word  to  him,  "  I  have  made  thee  this  day  a 
fortified  city,  and  an  iron  pillar,  and  brazen  walls,  against 
the  whole  land,  against  the  kings  of  Judah,  against  the 
princes  thereof,  against  the  priests  thereof,  and  against 
the  people  of  the  land"  (i,  18;  cf.  vi,  27;  xv,  20).  This 
finely  touched,  intense  nature  of  Jeremiah's,  so  full  of  the 
spirit  of  truth,  was  of  untold  significance  just  at  this  crucial 
period  in  Israel's  spiritual  history.  It  was  the  dynamic  of 
the  personal  element  in  the  prophetic  word,  the  element  of 
human  appeal  to  the  heart  of  man,  making  Jehovah's  word 
no  more  a  speculation  or  a  doubtful  dream  but  a  fire  and 
a  hammer  (cf.  xxiii,  28-30).  For  this  dynamic  the  time 
and  the  nation  were  ready.  Jeremiah  was  dealing,  it  will 
be  remembered,  with  a  people  whose  leading  classes  were 
described  by  his  contemporary  Zephaniah  as  "  settled  on 
their  lees"  (Zeph.  i,  12),  living  and  thinking  as  if  Jehovah 
were  the  same  kind  of  moral  nonentity  as  their  idols  ^  — 
or  as  Jeremiah  himself  puts  it,  "  have  walked  after  vanity, 
and  are  become  vain  "  (ii,  5  ;  cf.  Psa.  cxv,  8),  To  sting 
the  nation  to  life  from  such  spiritual  apathy  and  decadence 
nothing  could  avail  like  the  personal  touch.  It  was  this  ele- 
ment that  Jeremiah,  less  the  prophet  than  the  man,  whose 
sternness  though  inexorable  was  administered  in  sorrow 
and  love,  was  divinely  chosen  in  this  critical  time  to  supply. 
It  is  a  link  in  the  unitary  chain  of  creative  prophecy. 
Visions  of  saving  personality  have  already  been  vouchsafed 
to  Isaiah  (ix,  6,  7  ;    xi,  1-5  ;    xxxii,  1-8)  ;    they  constitute 

^  See  above,  p.  210. 
[231  ] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

* 
what  we  call  his  Messianic  strain.  Here  seems  to  be  a  first 
stage  in  making  the  vision  a  concrete  reality.  It  appears 
in  the  person  of  one  who  must  strive  and  contend  (xv,  lo), 
and  who  is  long  unreconciled  to  his  hard  lot  (xv,  16-19). 
It  is  the  reverse  side,  so  to  say,  of  the  grand  prophetic 
design.  Before  the  Chaldean  exile,  now  so  near,  is  over, 
we  shall  see  a  higher  stage  of  fulfillment,  in  the  personality 
of  one  who  "  will  not  cry,  nor  lift  up  his  voice,"  and  yet 
whose  work  will  be  potent  in  the  long  run  to  "'  set  justice 
in  the  earth  "  (Isa.  xlii,  1-4).  In  a  very  significant  sense 
we  may  regard  Jeremiah's  career  as  an  adumbration  of 
and  a  counterpart  to  that  of  the  mysterious  "  Servant  of 
Jehovah,"  whose  personality  and  work  are  portrayed  in  the 
Second  Isaiah.^ 

The  full  meaning  of  Jeremiah's  prophetic  call  perhaps 
did  not  come  to  him  all  at  once,  nor  while  he  was  in  the 
What  he  was  aggressivc  period  of  young  manhood.  It  sounds 
Called  to  Do  iji^e  the  fruit  of  age  and  reflection.  We  will 
remember  that  the  first  draft  of  his  prophecy  was  burned 
(xxxvi,  23) ;  we  note  further  that  this  event  occurred  at  the 
point  in  his  career  when  his  prophecy  took  on  a  more  hope- 
ful and  constructive  tone.  The  tide  of  his  book,  too,  names 
two  periods  of  prophetic  revelation,  one  beginning  in  Josiah's 
reign  and  the  other  in  that  of  Jehoiakim  (i,  1-3),  —  periods 
quite  definitely  distinguished  (cf.  xxv,  3-9).  We  can  well 
surmise,  therefore,  that  a  sense  of  the  tremendous  depth 
and  scope  of  the  work  he  was  called  to  do  first  became 
clear  to  him  in  his  later  and  more  reflective  years,  when 
he  began  to  feel  how  inevitable  was  the  overthrow  of  the 
Jewish  state.  His  call,  as  he  then  reports  it,  puts  into 
rather  more  definite  terms  a  work  of  Jehovah's  of  which 
both  Isaiah  in  his  day  (Isa.  xxviii,  20,  21)  and  Habakkuk 
in  this  (Hab.  i,  5)  have  had  an  apocalyptic  glimpse.  They 
had  seen  it,  however,  as  spectators  and  dreamers  ;   here  it. 

1  See  the  section  relating  to  the  Second  Isaiah  in  the  next  chapter. 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

seems  put  as  a  practical  duty  on  a  man's  shoulders.  "  See," 
is  Jehovah's  commission  to  him,  "  I  have  this  day  set  thee 
over  the  nations  and  over  the  kingdoms,  to  pluck  up  and 
to  break  down  and  to  destroy  and  to  overthrow,  to  build  and 
to  plant"  (i,  lO).  An  amazing  work  .this,  which  only  Jeho- 
vah's word,  through  this  human  spokesman,  can  avail  to  do. 
There  seems  to  have  been  given  to  Jeremiah  such  a  sense 
of  the  whole  vast  orbit  of  Jehovah's  purpose  that  he  is  able 
to  realize  in  some  degree  how  much  his  work  means  in  that 
little  arc  of  it  comprised  in  the  character  and  world  mission 
of  Israel.  It  is  this  living  sense  of  things  that  gives  him 
courage  and  steadfastness  for  his  appointed  task. 

In  this  commission,  as  will  be  noted,  a  series  of  strong 
metaphors  resolve  themselves  into  two  contrasted  factors, 
or  tendencies,  of  the  prophet's  influence  :  a  destructive  and 
a  constructive.  We  have  already  noted  the  somewhat  form- 
less character  of  his  book  considered  as  a  whole.  Only  con- 
fipsion  is  apt  to  result,  in  fact,  from  trying  to  conform  it  to 
a  planned  literary  scheme.  The  spirit  of  the  book,  however, 
requires  no  such  extraneous  aid.  The  prophet's  commission, 
as  just  quoted,  is  its  sufficient  key  of  structure.  In  applying 
this,  however,  we  must  needs  bear  in  mind  that  the  two 
factors  destructive  and  constructive  are  not  sharply  distin- 
guished in  detail  but  mingled  in  varying  proportions  ;  and 
that  they  are  expressed,  and  must  be  apprehended,  in  the 
intense  language  of  spiritual  realization.  Jeremiah's  power 
through  Jehovah's  word,  "'  to  pluck  up  and  to  break  down 
and  to  destroy  and  to  overthrow,  to  build  and  to  plant," 
is  exerted  not  in  the  councils  of  state  but  in  the  secret 
depths  of  human  nature,  the  spiritual  workshops  of  being. 
Hence  his  strong  personal  stress  and  feeling. 

Let  us  consider  in  brief  analysis  these  two  factors. 

The  period  of  Jeremiah's  career  which  he  deems  destruc- 
tive, and  during  which  denunciation  and  lament  predomi- 
nate,  corresponds  roughly  to  the   period  of   his  prophetic 

[333I 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

work  under  King  Josiah  and  up  to  the  fourth  year  of  King 
Jehoiakim.  The  prophet  himself  reviews  this  period  in  the 
The  Destruc-  twenty-fifth  chapter  (xxv,  3-6) ;  and  in  both  this 
tive  Factor  ^nd  the  eighteenth  chapter  defines  the  object  of 
its  destructive  trend.  .'"  At  what  instant,"  is  Jehovah's  word, 
"  I  shall  speak  concerning  a  nation,  and  concerning  a  king- 
dom, to  pluck  up  and  to  break  down  and  to  destroy  it ; 
if  that  nation,  concerning  which  I  have  spoken,  turn  from 
their  evil,  I  will  repent  of  the  evil  that  I  thought  to  do 
unto  them"  (xviii,  7,  8  ;  cf.  xxv,  5).  The  object,  after  all,  is 
not  vindictive  but  remedial.  It  is  not  the  nation's  existence 
that  he  would  destroy  but  the  inveterate  evils  that  like  ex- 
crescences have  fastened  themselves  upon  it.  "  Go  ye  up 
upon  her  walls,"  he  says,  "and  destroy;  but  make  not  a 
full  end  :  take  away  her  branches  ;  for  they  are.  not  Jeho- 
vah's "  (v,  10).  An  element  not  of  Jehovah  has  fastened 
itself  on  the  people's  character,  sapping  its  integrity  and 
exposing  it  to  the  danger  of  disintegration  ;  and  this  para- 
sitical growth  must  be  thoroughly  unearthed  and  uprooted. 
Such  is  the  prophet's  aim  in  his  work  during  Josiah's  reign, 
an  aim  which  does  not  interfere  with  but  rather  deepens 
the  reforms  already  in  the  air.  But  he  has  at  heart  an 
inner  and  intimate  object  which,  from  lack  of  a  generally 
diffused  spiritual  sense,  he  can  enforce  only  by  appeal  to 
the  danger  of  military  invasion  and  ruin  (cf.  i,  14-16  ;  iv,  6  ; 
X,  22).  Until  the  people  can  realize  that  their  real  peril- is 
from  within,  they  must  be  addressed  in  the  objective  terms 
that  they  can  feel  and  understand. 

When,  however,  we  inquire  more  specifically  what  there 
is  of  destructive  tendency  in  his  words,  we  find  that  he  is 
concerned  essentially  to  break  down  and  uproot  every  influ- 
ence that  has  wrought  to  mar  his  people's  personal  relation 
to  Jehovah,  and  by  consequence  their  national  integrity.  It 
all  centers  in  their  deep-seated  idolatrous  tendency,  which 
has  become  a  deadly  blight  on  their  character. 

[234] 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

I.  He  introduces  the  effects  of  idolatry  by  reverting  to 
the  same  fundamental  figure  that  Hosea  had  employed  of 
the  kingdom  of  Israel  a  century  before  ;  he  is  indeed  of 
similar  temperament  to  Hosea,  and  stands  in  an  analogous 
relation  to  the  kingdom  of  Judah.  Jehovah,  he  assumes  as 
did  Hosea,  is  a  tender  and  faithful  husband  to  his  people  ; 
but  they,  undeterred  by  the  sad  example  of  Israel,  have  even 
more  treacherously  forsaken  Him  and  turned  to  illicit  loves 
and  pleasures,  or,  as  Jeremiah  bluntly  puts  it,  have  "'  com- 
mitted adultery  with  stones  and  with  stocks  "  (iii,  9).  In 
the  same  reckless  disposition  they  have  run  about  after  the 
customs  and  culture  of  the  big  nations  who  seem  to  have 
set  the  pace  of  worldly  success  (ii,  18,  36;  cf.  v,  7,  8).  This 
shallow  infatuation  has  made  them  beyond  others  fickle  and 
disloyal  (ii,  10,  11).  Worse  than  that,  it  has  lowered  them 
to  a  rnental  and  spiritual  standard  unworthy  of  their  native 
intelligence  and  national  tradition.  They  have  nothing  to 
learn  from  foreign  gods  and  cults  ;  on  the  contrary,  devo- 
tion to  these  is  a  degeneration.  To  Jeremiah  the  whole 
idolatrous  business  is  a  thing  so  contemptible,  so  vacuous, 
that  men  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  it  as  if  it  were  a  secret 
crime  (ii,  26,  27)  ;  and  as  for  any  intellectual  value  in  it, 
he  exclaims,  "  The  instruction  of  idols  !  it  is  but  a  stock  " 
(x,  8).  In  this  feeling'  he  shares  with  his  contemporary 
Habakkuk,  who,  noting  the  idols  of  wood  and  stone  that 
call  forth  the  worship  of  the  approaching  Chaldeans,  ex- 
claims with  disgust,  "  Shall  this  teach  "  (Hab.  ii,  19)  ?  The 
prophets  are  realizing  not  only  the  religious  but  the  intel- 
lectual emptiness  of  the  heathenism  with  whose  allurements 
their  nation  has  so  long  been  obsessed  ;  and  if  they  set 
up  a  destructive  campaign  against  the  evil,  it  is  to  counter- 
act a  greater  evil  that  threatens,  "  even  the  fruit  of  their 
thoughts"  (vi,  19).  By  dallying  with  the  seductions  of  idol- 
atry the  people  are  but  courting  their  own  deterioration, 
"Do  they  provoke  me  to  anger?   saith  Jehovah;   do  they 

[235] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

not  provoke  themselves,  to  the  confusion  of  their  own 
faces"  (vii,  19)?  "  P^or  my  people,"  is  Jehovah's  introduc- 
tory statement  of  the  situation,  "  have  committed  two  evils  : 
they  have  forsaken  me,  the  fountain  of  living  waters,  and 
hewed  them  out  cisterns,  broken  cisterns,  that  can  hold 
no  water  "  (ii,  13). 

2.  Nor  is  it  this  exotic  culture  alone  that  Jeremiah  is 
concerned  to  eradicate.  His  spiritual  intuitions  go  deeper. 
There  are  other  things,  native  to  Israel's  traditional  faith, 
which,  because  they  have  become  dead  forms  or  hurtful 
superstitions  dissociated  from  personal  righteousness,  are 
doomed  to  go. 

For  who  would  keep  an  ancient  form 
Thro'  which  the  spirit  breathes  no  more? 

seems  to  have  been  a  conviction  to  which  his  realization  of 
things  led  him.  Hezekiah,  in  his  day,  had  had  the  resolu- 
tion to  break  up  the  brazen  serpent  which  had  evidently 
become  a  fetish  (2  Kings  xviii,  4)  ;  it  was  a  wholesome 
beginning  of  a  constructive  iconoclasm.  Jeremiah,  in  the 
same  sentiment,  prophesies  a  time  when  the  ark  of  the 
covenant,  around  which  have  centered  some  of  the  nation's 
most  mystic  ideas,  will  no  more  be  brought  to  mind  (iii,  16). 
But  a  more  radical  sweep  than  this  follows.  Seeing  how, 
since  city  and  Temple  were  miraculously  spared  in  the  time 
of  Isaiah,  the  Temple  has  come  to  be  regarded  as  a  Pal- 
ladium of  safety  apart  frorri  the  righteousness  its  worship 
represents,  he  boldly  takes  his  stand  in  the  gate  of  Jeho- 
vah's house  and  proclaims,  "  Trust  ye  not  in  lying  words, 
saying,  '  The  Temple  of  Jehovah,  the  Temple  of  Jehovah, 
the  Temple  of  Jehovah,  are  these '  "  (vii,  4),  and  goes  on 
to  stigmatize  it  as  "a  den  of  robbers"  (vs.  11),  —  the  same 
term  which  our  T.ord  takes  up  and  uses  as  a  motive  for 
his  cleansing  of  the  Temple  (cf.  Mark  xi,  17).  He  prom- 
ises perpetuity  of  residence  in  that  place  if  they  will  amend 

[  236  ] 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

their  ways  and  their  doings  ;  but  faiHng  this,  their  sacred 
Temple,  its  function  outraged,  is  doomed  to  become  hke 
Shiloh  (vss.  12-15).  He  intimates  further  that  their  system 
of  sacrifices  is  not  of  the  original  commandment  but  added 
later,  to  the  hurt  of  that  simple,  forthright  obedience  which 
is  the  one  thing  pleasing  to  God  (vss.  21-24).  This  first 
prophecy  against  the  dishonored  Temple  seems  to  have  had 
little  attention  (cf.  vss.  27,  28) ;  but  later  in  his  career,  when 
as  a  kind  of  last  resort  he  repeats  this  threat  of  the  doom 
of  Shiloh,  his  words  are  bitterly  resented,  and  he  is  in 
danger  of  death,  until  some  of  the  elders  remind  the  in- 
dignant princes  that  a  similar  prophecy  was  uttered  a  cen- 
tury before  by  Micah  (xxvi,  1-19  ;  cf.  Mic.  iii,  12).  From 
all  this  it  may  be  seen  that  Jeremiah  accounts  nothing 
sacred  that  is  not  sincere  ;  as  soon  as  falseness  enters,  or 
a  cover  for  unrighteousness,  its  doom  is  deserved  and  sure. 
3.  Another  indictment  that  Jeremiah  has  against  his  time 
is  still  more  sweeping.  It  is  against  the  leaders  in  thought 
and  morals  in  whose  hands  is  the  education  of  the  people. 
There  is  much  in  their  work  to  be  purged  and  corrected, 
doubtless  because  it,  like  the  fashionable  sentiment  of  the 
day,  has  caught  the  blight  of  heathen  and  decadent  ten- 
dency. When  Jeremiah,  by  the  figure  of  the  potter  and 
the  clay,  tells  his  people  that  Jehovah  is  minded  out  of  the 
misshapen  character  of  Israel  to  make  a  new  and  comely 
vessel,  he  is  met  by  the  skepticism  of  men  stuck  fast  in 
conservatism.  The  nation's  educational  activities,  it  would 
seem,  are  well  organized;  "the  law,"  they  say,  '•  shall  not 
perish  from  the  priest,  nor  counsel  from  the  wise,  nor  the 
word  from  the  prophet"  (xviii,  18).  With  all  these  lines 
of  instruction  in  smooth  and  conventional  running  order, 
they  need  pay  no  attention  to  this  outsider  with  his  revolu- 
tionary notions  ;  such  seems  to  have  been  the  sentiment 
in  which  Jeremiah's  menace  of  danger  was  received.  But 
Jeremiah's  indictment  pierces  beneath  their  conventionalized 

[237] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

institutions.  "A  wonderful  and  horrible  thing,"  he  says,  "is 
come  to  pass  in  the  land  :  the  prophets  prophesy  falsely, 
and  the  priests  bear  rule  by  their  means  ;  and  my  people 
love  to  have  it  so  :  and  what  will  ye  do  in  the  end  thereof" 
(v,  30,  31)?  He  is  severest,  perhaps,  upon  the  prophets, 
the  men  who  ought  to  be  his  colleagues  as  spokesmen  of 
Jehovah  ;  they  are  men  whose  dreams  are  an  echo  of  public 
opinion,  whose  personality  is  subdued  to  the  corrupt  stand- 
ards of  the  times,  and  whose  vaticinations  accordingly,  like 
water,  cannot  rise  higher  than  their  own  source  (see  xxiii, 
9-40).  But  the  wise  men  also  come  in  for  their  share  of 
denunciation  (viii,  8,  9  ;  ix,  23,  24) ;  ""  the  false  pen  of  the 
scribes,"  he  complains,  "  hath  wrought  falseh^,"  as  if  some- 
how they  had  perverted  the  truth  of  things.  A  class  of 
men  not  hitherto  mentioned  in  prophecy,  also,  are  included 
in  Jeremiah's  comprehensive  censure:  the  shepherds, — a 
general  term  for  the  princes  and  rulers,  whose  function  is 
to  fold  and  feed  the  flock  of  Jehovah,  and  who  like  the 
rest  are  false  and  rebellious  (ii,  8,  margin  ;  xxiii,  1-4 ;  cf. 
Ezek.  xxxiv).  All  this  amounts  to  a  sweeping  indictment 
of  the  cultural  institutions  of  Israel,  as  they  have  lapsed 
into  decadence  from  the  standard  dictated  by  loyalty  to 
Jehovah.  "For  my  people,"  is  Jehovah's  summary,  "are 
foolish,  they  know  me  not ;  they  are  sottish  children,  and 
they  have  no  understanding ;  they  are  wise  to  do  evil,  but 
to  do  good  they  have  no  knowledge  "  (iv,  22). 

We  have  thus  seen  with  what  sad  thoroughness  Jeremiah 
took  the  destructive  factor  of  his  mission  to  heart,  empha- 
sizing every  demand  of  it  almost  as  if  it  were  final,  and 
yet  with  each  indictment  infusing  a  gracious  and  saving 
element.  The  breaking  down  and  the  uprooting  were  done 
not  in  vengeance  but  in  presageful  love.  It  was  like  a  wise 
clearing  of  the  ground  for  a  building  and  planting  which 
should  be  as  nobfe  as  the  preparation  was  thorough.  And 
let  us  pause  here  to  note  how  timely  all  this  severity  was. 

[238] 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

For  soon,  while  the  prophet  was  still  living  and  active,  the 
long  impending  transplantation  of  the  people  would  come, 
when,  on  new  and  unhallowed  ground,  the  splendid  glamours 
of  idolatry  in  its  home  would  be  forced  upon  their  sight, 
while  all  the  ritual  and  traditional  props  by  which  they  had 
buttressed  up  a  heedless  religion  would  be  gone.  Well  for 
them  that  the  crude  ugliness  of  idolatrous  culture  and  the 
futility  of  insincere  forms  had  been  so  strenuously  laid  bare  ; 
it  was  an  essential  prophylactic  for  the  crisis  to  come. 

In  the  tone  of  Jeremiah's  prophecies  of  the  second  period, 
under  Jehoiakim  and  his  successors,  while  there  is  no  lack 
of  sharp   censure  and  severity,  the  constructive 
Constructive   predominates.      A   new   note    of    encouragement 
^*^  °^  and  promise  takes  the  place  of  the  former  voice 

of  denunciation  and  lament.  This  transition  is  definftely 
announced  in  terms  of  the  prophet's  original  commission. 
"And  it  shall  come  to  pass,"  is  Jehovah's  word,  "that,  like 
as  I  have  watched  over  them  to  pluck  up  and  to  break 
down  and  to  overthrow  and  to  destroy  and  to  afflict,  so  will 
I  watch  over  them  to  build  and  to  plant"  (xxxi,  28).  This 
intimates  that  the  prophetic  activity  yet  to  come  will  be  a 
contribution  toward  the  constructive  factor  of  Jehovah's  pur- 
pose. So  indeed  it  turns  out ;  but  because  the  constructive 
design  is  founded  on  a  principle  new  and  strange  to  the 
thoughts  of  men,  it  must  create  its  fit  audience  and  follow- 
ing slowly,  making  its  way  through  contempt  and  persecution 
to  positive  results  which  in  the  present  are  germinal  and 
secret.  Still,  it  is  the  pioneer  work  in  a  building  and  plant- 
ing for  a  limitless  world  and  for  eternity ;  it  will  reveal 
itself  as  men  are  ready  for  it. 

Mingled  with  the  prophecies  of  this  period  are  passages 
from  the  biography  of  Jeremiah  written  by  his  secretary 
Baruch  ;  which  passages,  written  in  narrative  prose,  serve  in 
part  to  show  the  circumstances  under  which  the  prophecies 
were  uttered,  but  are  not  very  mindful  either  of  chronological 

[239] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

or  topical  order.  But  for  the  light  they  throw  on  the  indig- 
nities and  sufferings  that  his  message  elicited,  and  on  his 
consistent  steadfastness  through  them  all,  these  biographical 
incidents  are  an  invaluable  contribution  to  his  constructive 
work,  making  him  not  only  a  proclaimer  but  a  living  embodi- 
ment of  it.  As  such  he  is  the  first  of  three  great  person- 
alities in  whom  the  supreme  meanings  of  Israel's  prophetic 
era  come  to  vital  expression.  It  is  with  the  prophecy  itself, 
however,  rather  than  with  details  of  the  biography,  that  we 
are  at  present  concerned. 

I.  To  get  at  the  inwardness  of  this  constructive  factor 
of  Jeremiah's  commission,  we  will  go  back  a  moment  to  the 
reign  of  Josiah,  when  he  was  engaged  predominantly  in  the 
irksome  work  of  breaking  down  and  uprooting  the  inveterate 
evils  of  Judah.  His  work  began,  it  will-  be  remembered, 
when  the  nation,  under  its  pious  and  blameless  king,  was 
engaged  in  a  campaign  of  Temple  repair  and  reform  ;  which 
work  five  years  thereafter  was  made  enthusiastic,  not  to 
say  fanatical,  by  the  discovery  of  the  Book  of  the  Law  in 
the  Temple,  and  the  hearty  response  of  king  and  people  to 
it,  as  to  the  ancient  covenant  given  by  Moses. ^  A  notable 
reform  this,  one  of  the  great  landmarks  of  Israel's  history  ; 
it  has  seemed  strange  to  many  that  Jeremiah  takes  so  little 
notice  of  it.  He  does  indeed  counsel  obedience  to  it,  giving 
it  his  sincere  "  Amen  "  (xi,  i-8),  but  in  a  way  which,  as 
compared  with  his  usual  vehemence,  seems  rather  lukewarm  ; 
and  in  the  conspiracy  of  opposition  to  it  which  he  encoun- 
ters in  his  home  town  (cf.  xi,  21)  he  seems  to  recognize  an 
element  of  futility  in  the  covenant  itself.  Good  as  far  as 
it  goes,  it  is  not  penetrative  enough,  not  self-vitalizing ;  it 
is  a  thing,  after  all,  imposed  from  without.  But  the  revived 
idea  of  the  covenant  sets  him  thinking  ;  and  while  he  goes 
on  with  his  destructive  work  the  thought  of  a  new  covenant 
is  germinating  within  him,  a  covenant  which  shall  really  be 
1  See  above,  p.  220  f. 
[  240] 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

a  mutual  accord  between  man  and  God.  By  the  time  he 
has  reached  the  transition  to  the  constructive  factor  this 
thought  is  so  matured  that  it  is  made  the  basal  principle  of 
Israel's  new  life,  and  indeed  strikes  the  highest  note  that 
the  prophetic  ideal  has  hitherto  reached.  "  Behold,  the  days 
come,  saith  Jehovah,  that  I  will  make  a  new  covenant  with 
the  house  of  Israel,  and  with  the  house  of  Judah  :  not  ac- 
cording to  the  covenant  that  I  made  with  their  fathers  in 
the  day  that  I  took  them  by  the  hand  to  bring  them  out  of 
the  land  of  Kgypt ;  which  my  covenant  they  brake,  although 
I  was  a  husband  unto  them,  saith  Jehovah.  But  this  is  the 
covenant  that  I  will  make  with  the  house  of  Israel  after 
those  days,  saith  Jehovah  :  I  will  put  my  law  in  their  in- 
ward parts,  and  in  their  heart  will  I  write  it ;  and  I  will  be 
their  God,  and  they  shall  be  my  people.  And  they  shall 
teach  no  more  every  man  his  neighbor,  and  every  man  his 
brother,  saying,  '  Know  Jehovah  '  :  for  they  shall  all  know 
me,  from  the  least  of  them  unto  the  greatest  of  them,  saith 
Jehovah  :  for  I  will  forgive  their  iniquity,  and  their  sin  will 
I  remember  no  more"  (xxxi,  31-34).  This  ideal  of  self- 
subsistent  personality  in  conscious  fellowship  with  Jehovah 
is  the  concept  that  has  underlain  all  his  work  of  negation, 
making  its  severity  truly  remedial  and  constructive. 

2.  As  a  broken  and  dishonored  covenant  connotes  a 
decadent  state,  so  a  new  covenant  relation  with  Jehovah, 
wherein  not  the  communal  body  but  the  individual  soul  is 
the  vital  unit,  connotes  a  new  commonwealth  renewed  after 
its  inner  principle.  For  this  Jeremiah  has  provided  funda- 
mentally in  predicting  the  covenant  itself.  He  prefaces  the 
prediction  by  quoting  a  homely  old  proverb,  which  evidently 
expresses  a  very  prevalent  sentiment  since  both  he  and 
Ezekiel  cite  it,  but  which  both  say  no  more  holds.  "  The 
fathers  have  eaten  sour  grapes,"  the  proverb  runs,  "and 
the  children's  teeth  are  set  on  edge  "  (xxxi,  29  ;  cf.  Ezek. 
xviii,  2).     No  more,  say  both   prophets,  shall   this  shallow 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

pretext  of  heredity  (attenuated  perhaps  from  the  second  com- 
mandment, Exod.  XX,  5  ;  Deut.  v,  9)  be  used  to  excuse  sin 
or  explain  misfortune.  Henceforth  individual  character,  with 
its  individual  responsibility  and  freedom,  is  to  be  the  unit 
of  values  personal  and  communal.  This  broaches  a  doctrine 
wholly  new  in  race-ridden  Israel.  And  it  comes  just  in 
season  to  prepare  for  the  critical  time  when  it  will  be  vitally 
needed.  Soon  they  will  be  in  exile  and  foreign  subjection, 
without  a  king  and  without  central  organization  ;  each  man 
must  be  self-directive,  his  own  king  as  it  were.  Hence  the 
new  covenant,  which  embodies  the  spiritual  virtue  to  build 
a  new  manhood  and  plant  a  new  commonwealth.  Jeremiah's 
idea  of  this  regenerated  state,  which  seems  to  dawn  upon 
him  as  soon  as  he  is.  fully  convinced  that  the  captivity  is 
inevitable,  comes  as  a  kind  of  reaction,  a  resilient  uprise 
of  faith,  as  the  saving  virtues  of  the  state  are  felt  to  be 
running  low.  After  reviewing  the  line  of  kings  from  the 
good  Josiah  untimely  slain,  to  Coniah  (Jehoiachin)  doomed 
to  exile  from  his  throne  and  land  with  no  hope  of  a  ruling 
successor  (xxii,  10-30)  and  with  a  degenerate  court  ("  shep- 
herds," xxiii,  I,  2),  he  predicts  as  an  offset  to  this,  in  the 
coming  days,  a  well-cared-for  people  gathered  from  the  scat- 
tered remnant  of  Jehovah's  flock  (xxiii,  3),  and  over  them, 
raised  unto  David,  "a  righteous  Branch,"  who  "shall  reign 
as  king,  and  deal  wisely,  and  shall  execute  justice  and  right- 
eousness in  the  land"  (xxiii,  5;  cf.  xxxiii,  15).  Such  is 
Jeremiah's  contribution  to  the  Messianic  idea ;  and  the 
era  associated  with  it  will  be  so  superior  to  the  decadent 
past  that  its  inauguration  will  be  an  epoch  to  date  history 
by  (xxiii,  7,  8). 

3.  These  ideas  of  building  and  planting  are  no  mere 
poet's  dream  ;  for  Jeremiah  is  the  least  visionary  of  the 
prophets,  having  little  use  for  dreams  (cf.  xxiii,  25-29) ; 
and  it  is  his  preeminent  service  to  his  people  to  make  his 
prophecies  practical,  putting  them  into  the  works,  so  to  say, 

[242] 


AFTER  THE  REPRIEVE 

to  be  wrought  into  fulfillment.  This  is  seen  in  his  treat- 
ment of  the  first  and  most  important  deportation.  As  early 
as  the  fourth  year  of  Jehoiakim  (605  B.C.),  when  Nebuchad- 
nezzar's victory  over  Pharaoh  Necho  at  Carchemish  gave  the 
world-empire  to  the  Chaldeans,  he  predicted  the  captivity 
of  Judah  in  definite  terms,  putting  its  duration  at  seventy 
years  and  promising  a  return  at  the  end  of  that  time  (xxv, 
12  ;  cf.  xxix,  10).  During  that  period  all  the  nations,  Jeru- 
salem and  the  Judean  cities  not  exempted,  must  "  drink  of 
the  wine  of  the  wrath  of  Jehovah,"  and  the  mind  of  men 
would  be  in  madness  and  confusion  {xxv,  15-29).  This 
momentous  ordeal  was  evidently  a  thing  to  be  met  not 
with  dismay  but  v/ith  wisdom  and  enlightened  faith.  When, 
therefore,  eight  years  after  this  prediction,  the  siege  and 
surrender  of  Jerusalem  occurred,  Jeremiah,  though  at  first 
bewildered  by  the  banishment  of  King  Jehoiachin  (Coniah) 
and  his  household  (xxii,  '24-30),  apparently  took  the  event 
as  a  matter  of  course  ;  when  indeed  he  saw  that  the  surren- 
der comprised  the  sterling  citizenry  of  the  state  (cf.  2  Kings 
xxiv,  14),  he  regarded  it  (see  his  vision  of  the  figs,  chap,  xxiv) 
as  a  providential  separation  of  the  good  elements  from  the 
bad,  the  sound  and  saving  remnant  from  the  herd  of  corrupt 
and  decadent.  To  these  "good  figs,"  now  domiciled  in  the 
land  of  the  Chaldeans,  he  applies  his  favorite  constructive 
metaphors  :  "  F'or  I  will  set  mine  eyes  upon  them  for  good, 
and  I  will  bring  them  again  to  this  land  ;  and  I  will  build 
them,  and  not  pull  them  down  ;  and  I  will  plant  them,  and 
not  pluck  them  up  "  (xxiv,  6).  It  is  with  these  that  the 
hope  and  redemption  of  Israel  lies.  From  this  time  onward 
his  plans  and  cares  are  as  truly  with  these  exiles  as  with 
those  who  have  remained  at  home  ;  and  when  a  little  later 
the  too  superficial  prophets  who  have  accompanied  Jehoia- 
chin stir  up  the  communit)-  in  Chaldca  with  false  hopes 
of  a  speedy  return,  he  writes  his  famous  letter  to  them, 
reminding  them  of  their  seventy  years'  appointed  time,  and 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

advising  them  to  make  themselves  homes  and  maintain 
family  and  communal  life  as  if  their  stay  were  to  be  per- 
manent, "  and  seek  the  peace  of  the  city  whither  I  have 
caused  you  to  be  carried  away  captive,  and  pray  unto  Jeho- 
vah for  it ;  for  in  the  peace  thereof  shall  ye  have  peace  " 
(xxix).  With  a  national  transplantation  that  is  so  full  of 
meaning  for  Israel's  larger  mission  and  destiny  he  cannot 
reconcile  a  short  captivity,  much  as  he  would  like  to  do  so 
(cf.  xxviii).  The  constructive  factor  of  his  w^ork  is  concerned 
with  a  development  of  character  which  requires  time  and 
experience  in  the  larger  world  of  Jehovah's  purpose,  and 
this  exile  is  his  strange  yet  gracious  means  thereto.  "  For 
I  know  the  thoughts  that  I  think  toward  you,  saith  Jeho- 
vah, thoughts  of  peace  and  not  of  evil,  to  give  you  hope 
in  your  latter  end"  (xxix,  ii).  Accordingly,  the  first  cap- 
tivity, brought  about  by  the  peaceful  surrender  of  King 
Jehoiachin  and  the  best  elements*  of  the  nation,  is  taken 
by  the  prophet  as  a  matter  of  course,  as  a  step  in  the 
development  which  Jehovah  has  in  purpose  for  them. 

Equally  was  this  calm  confidence  in  the  truth  of  his 
prophecy  manifested  on  the  eve  of  the  final  deportation, 
when  he  was  in  prison  for  predicting  the  disaster  to  king 
and  city,  and  w^hen,  as  it  would  seem,  the  beleaguering  army 
was  encamped  even  in  his  home  town  two  miles  away. 
He  had  prophesied  eventual  return  ;  return  therefore  was 
a  matter  of  course,  not  of  uncertainty.  Accordingly,  in  the 
face  of  this  seeming  hopeless  outlook,  he  bought  an  ances- 
tral field  in  Anathoth,  and  executed  the  deed  with  all  care 
and  legality,  because  —  '"  thus  saith  Jehovah  of  hosts,  the 
God  of  Israel  :  "  Houses  and  fields  and  vineyards  shall  yet 
again  be' bought  in  this  land'"  (xxxii,  15;  42-44). 

The  immediate  effect  of  the  first  captivity  on  the  proph- 
et's mind  was  to  clear  up  the  prophetic  situation  in  Israel. 
This  is  shown  in  his  homely  vision  of  the  two  baskets  of 
figs  (xxiv)  :   "  the  good  figs,  very  good  ;  and  the  bad,  very 

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AFTER  THE   REPRIEVE 

bad,  that  cannot  be  eaten,  they  are  so  bad."  This  vision  he 
uses  to  discriminate  between  the  people  who  have  gone  to 
Babylon,  the  element  destined  to  peace  and  pros- 
the  Two  perity  and  eventual  return,  and  the  poorer  sort  who 
Captivities  remain,  the  element  destined  to  eventual  dispersion 
and  unrest  and  scorn.  His  sympathy  and  promise  are  with 
the  former ;  with  the  latter  he  must  remain  in  thankless 
labor  until  his  own  enforced  exile  and  death.  It  is  a  labor 
hopeless  of  any  triumphant  outcome ;  its  prophetic  substance, 
not  new  oracles  but  counsels  and  warnings  for  the  immediate 
occasion ;  and  its  literary  vehicle,  not  impassioned  rhapsody 
but  mainly  the  biographical  reports  of  his  secretary  Baruch. 
During  the  eleven  years  intervening  between  the  two 
captivities  (597  to  586  b.c),  accordingly,  Jeremiah's  chief 
concern  with  his  people  was  to  keep  them  from  indulging 
false  hopes  of  deliverance  from  the  Chaldeans  (cf.,  for  ex- 
ample, xxxvii,  5-10),  and  to  emphasize  the  unchangeable 
truth  of  the  predictions  he  had  already  made.  To  every 
anxious  inquiry  on  the  part  of  king  or  leaders  he  returned 
the  consistent  answer  :  they  must  come  under  the  hand  of 
the  king  of  Babylon,  and  their  city  must  be  destroyed 
(cf.  xxxiv,  1-5  ;  xxxviii,  14-23).  And  when  the  Chaldean 
army  drew  near  to  besiege  the  city,  he  counseled  them  to 
save  their  lives  by  surrender  (xxi,  9  ;  xxxviii,  2).  For  this 
he  suffered  a  loathsome  imprisonment  on  the  charge  of 
treason,  and  came  nigh  to  death  (xxxviii,  4-13).  But  just 
this  counsel  was  in  the  consistent  line  of  his  common-sense 
view  of  life  ;  it  came  too  at  a  time,  already  taught  by  one 
experience,  when  surrender  would  mean  not  desperation  but 
faith  and  courage.  It  was,  to  be  sure,  a  new  lesson  in  a 
world  all  too  inured  to  treacheries  and  atrocities  between 
nations.  But  there  is  evidence  that  in  the  years  succeeding 
it  was  an  element  in  the  redemption  of  Israel.  In  a  sense 
we  -may  regard  it  as  the  keynote  of  the  strong  religious 
spirit  of  the  exile.     It  means  much  for  nation  or  individual 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

to  prove  by  wise  experience  that  "the  conquest  of  Fate 
comes  not  by  rebelhous  struggle,  but  by  acquiescence." 
And  to  the  better  remnant  of  Israel  it  was  given,  in  this 
Chaldean  captivit}',  to  exemplify  this  on  a  national  scale, 
though  the  prophet's  immediate  counsel  went  unheeded. 

This  later  period  of  Jeremiah's  life,  however,  was  not 
without  its  larger  work  in  literary  prophecy.  Through  his 
amanuensis  Baruch  he  composed  a  series  of  oracles,  or 
burdens,  on  the  surrounding  nations  (xlvi-li),  beginning 
with  Egypt,  as  the  battle  of  Carchemish  brought  her  under 
the  dominion  of  Chaldea  (xlvi),  and  ending  with  the  doom 
of  mighty  Babylon  herself  (1,  li),  who,  after  the  appointed 
seventy  years  were  completed,  must  in  her  turn  drink,  like 
all  the  other  nations,  of  the  wine  of  Jehovah's  wrath  (xxv, 
12-31).  The  oracles  addressed  to  these  nations  —  Philistia, 
Moab,  Ammon,  Edom,  Damascus,  Kedar,  Elam  —  are  mostly 
of  unrelieved  doom  ;  though  there  is  an  occasional  promise 
that  Jehovah  "  will  bring  back  the  captivity  "  of  some  people 
(cf.  xlviii,  47  ;  xlix,  6,  39).  His  warrant  for  the  prophecies 
on  the  nations  outside  of  Israel  is  in  the  terms  of  his  original 
commission,  for  he  feels  that  Jehovah  has  set  him  "over  the 
nations,  and  over  the  kingdoms  "  (i,  10).  It  belongs  also  to 
his  message  of  peace  and  redemption  for  Israel,  so  soon  to 
be  swallowed  up  in  the  maw  of  the  Chaldean  monster  (cf.  li, 
34)  ;  for  the  time  of  Chaldea  also  would  come,  and  Israel, 
delivered,  would  have  no  occasion  to  fear,  but  rather  to  bless 
the  discipline  of  her  ordeal.  One  is  inclined  to  call  it  not 
only  the  culmination  of  Jeremiah's  untold  service  to  his 
nation,  but  the  high-water  mark  of  prophecy  itself,  when  in 
the  face  of  all  their  calamities  and  all  their  sins  he  leaves 
with  them  this  parting  word  :  "  But  fear  not  thou,  O  Jacob 
my  servant,  neither  be  dismayed,  O  Israel  :  for,  lo,  I  will 
save  thee  from  afar,  and  thy  seed  from  the  land  of  their 
captivity ;  and  Jacob  shall  return,  and  shall  be  quiet  and 
at  ease,  and  none  shall  make  him  afraid.     Fear  not  thou, 

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AFTER  THE   REPRIEVE 

O  Jacob  my  servant,  saith  Jehovah  ;  for  I  am  with  thee  : 
for  I  will  make  a  full  end  of  all  the  nations  whither  I 
have  driven  thee  ;  but  I  w'ill  not  make  a  full  end  of  thee, 
but  I  will  correct  thee  in  measure,  and  will  no  wise  leave 
thee  unpunished "  (xlvi,  27,   28). 

Thus  the  period  of  Israel's  literary  history  which  I  have 
called  The  Formative  Centuries  goes  out  in  a  burial  of 
exile  and  sequestration,  but  also  in  a  great  courage  of 
hope  ;  and  already  from  the  midst  of  the  exile  a  disciple 
of  Jeremiah  who  went  to  Babylon  is  striking  the  note  of  a 
new  era.  "'  Son  of  man,  what  is  this  proverb  that  ye  have 
in  the  land  of  Israel,  '  The  days  are  prolonged,  and  every 
vision  faileth  '  ?  Tell  them  therefore,  Thus  saith  the  Lord 
Jehovah,  I  will  make  this  proverb  to  cease,  and  they  shall 
no  more  use  it  as  a  proverb  in  Israel  :  but  say  unto  them, 
'  The  days  are  at  hand,  and  the  fulfilment  of  every  vision 
{Ezek.  xii,  22,  23).  In  the  stimulating  conditions  of  a  trans- 
planted nation  it  is  time  for  the  words  of  prophet,  lawgiver, 
and  sage  to  work  their  destined  effect ;  for  the  literature  of 
ages  to  draw  toward  that  revised,  collected,  and  coordinated 
form  which  will  make  it  a  people's  Bible.  To  trace  this 
development  will  be  the  endeavor  of  the  ensuing  book. 


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BOOK  II 

THE  PEOPLE  OF  A   BOOK 


Thy  words  were  found,  and  I  did  eat  them ;  and  thy  word  was  unto 
me  the  joy  and  rejoicing  of  my  heart :  for  I  am  called  by  thy  name, 
O  Lord  God  of  hosts.  —  Jeremiah 

We  really  learn  only  from  those  books  which  we  cannot  criticise 
The  author  of  a  book  which  we  could  criticise  would  have  to  learn  from 
us.  —  Goethe 


[250 


THE   PEOPLE   OF  A   BOOK 

BY  THIS  historic  phrase,  applied  by  Mohammed  to  the 
Christians  but  equally  applicable  to  the  Jews  before 
Christ,  we  may  designate  what  the  Hebrew  people  became 
as  the  result  of  the  long  educative  experience  which  began 
with  the  Chaldean  exile,  586  b.c,  and  extended  to  the 
coming  and  ministry  of  Jesus.  They  went  into  exile  with 
a  heroic  history  behind  them,  full  of  the  tokens  of  Jeho- 
vah's special  care  and  leading.  They  had  already  in  posses- 
sion a  goodly  fund  of  literature,  historic,  prophetic,  poetic; 
and  when  the  break-up  of  the  Israelitish  state  came  this 
literature  was  still  in  full  creative  tide,  in  what  we  have 
called  the  formative  centuries.  It  already  had  in  some  form 
the  prophecies  of  Amos,  Hosea,  Micah,  and  Isaiah  of  Jeru- 
salem ;  the  popularized  book  of  law  which  we  know  as 
Deuteronomy  ;  many  psalms  and  proverbs  compiled  under 
King  Hezekiah  ;  and  much  of  the  early  histories  from  Gene- 
sis to  Kings.  In  close  touch  with  the  exile  itself  Jeremiah 
was  giving  his  fervid  and  vigorous  warnings  in  Jerusalem, 
and  Ezekiel,  beginning  five  years  after  the  first  deportation 
(Ezek.  i,  2),  was  working  among  the  exiles  in  Chaldea.  But 
this  varied  literary  utterance,  scattered  and  hidden,  was 
imperfectly  coordinated  and  not  yet  adjusted  to  the  newer 
times.  It  needed  the  touch  of  the  editor  and  the  scholar, 
the  organizing  sense  of  the  man  of  letters,  who  could  col- 
lect, revise,  and  proportion,  according  to  a  just  appraisal  of 
its  import.  The  people  must  learn,  as  it  were,  to  read  the 
great  stories,  poems,  and  prophecies  that  had  already  been 
written,  and  to  realize  their  undying  value. 

This  was  the  more  needed  because,  in  spite  of  the  prom- 
ise and  hope  of  which  their  literature  was  full,  their  national 

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and  political  existence  had  seemed  to  end  in  irretrievable 
disaster.  From  586  d.c.  onward  the  people,  suddenly  plunged 
into  exile,  had  to  submit  to  foreign  domination,  which  after 
the  return  to  their  homeland  continued  with  changes  of 
rulers  and  empires,  but  with  little  hope  of  national  inde- 
pendence. Prospects  of  success  in  a  merely  worldly  and 
material  career  seemed  to  be  closed.  If  then  the  prophetic 
purport  of  their  history,  and  the  high  destiny  foretold  of 
them,  was  ever  to  be  realized,  it  must  come  in  a  sense 
and  with  an  application  different  from  worldly,  an  outcome 
not  yet  clearly  understood.  In  other  words,  a  new  depth 
and  strain  of  meaning  must  be  given  to  their  literature,  to 
make  it  timely  for  strange  new  conditions. 

Accordingly,  after  prophecy  has  reached  its  culmination 
during  the  exile,  in  Ezekiel  and  Second  Isaiah,  the  com- 
manding figure  of  the  prophet,  with  his  impassioned  and 
creative  mission,  gradually  ceases  to  hold  the  central  place 
in  literature  and  public  appreciation.  He  gives  way  to  the 
scribe,  or  scholar,  whose  interests  are  largely  centered  in 
the  past,  and  whose  work  is  more  critical  and  interpretative 
than  creative.  Under  the  care  of  the  scribes  the  body  of 
the  nation's  literature  is  first  collected  and  edited,  and  so 
preserved  for  the  uses  of  the  restored  nation.  Important 
new  works  are  added,  as  occasion  calls,  and  the  old  works 
are  revised  and  filled  out  with  matter  suited  to  the  changed 
circumstances  of  the  nation,  but  with  reverent  regard  for 
the  integrity  of  the  old  masterpieces  of  literary  composition. 
Then  in  course  of  time,  and  by  successive  stages,  this  ac- 
cumulated literature  is  classified  and  organized  into  a  canon, 
or  library  ;  to  the  making  of  which  are  applied  rigid  princi- 
ples of  inclusion  and  exclusion.  Later  still  this  canon  comes 
to  be  regarded  as  a  bible,  a  holy  book,  with  something  of 
the  structure  and  essential  unity  of  a  single  literary  work  ; 
which  work  becomes  the  main  source  of  the  Hebrew  race's 
education  in  religion,  morals,  and  law.     Thus,  to  an  extent 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  A  BOOK 

far  surpassing  any  other  race  of  antiquity,  the  Jews  became 
a  people  grounded  in  the  knowledge  of  their  racial  idea, 
and  of  the  meaning  of  their  history,  the  people  of  a  book. 
In  the  large  sense,  then,  we  may  say,  it  is  the  business 
of  this  Jewish  people,  through  the 'nearly  six  centuries  that 
intervene  from  the  exile  to  the  coming  of  Christ,  to  put 
into  form  and  order  the  book  of  their  life,  that  is,  to  articu- 
late the  living  idea  for  which  as  race  and  people  they  exist, 
and  to  get  this  ingrained  in  the  mind  of  all  classes  of  the 
people.  For  this  great  mission  they  have  been  gathering 
rich  material,  which  in  spite  of  their  dispersion  and  subject 
political  condition  still  has  unabated  power  to  inspire  and 
encourage.  As  an  independent  state,  maintaining  a  political 
autonomy  among  the  empires  of  the  earth,  their  career  is 
closed  ;  but  as  a  community  of  individuals,  with  strong  racial 
and  religious  solidarity,  their  new  career  is  just  opening. 
Their  mission  is  to  build  up  the  ideal  of  life  anew,  not 
from  the  corporate  but  from  the  personal  and  individual  unit 
(cf.  Jer,  xxxi,  29-34  ;  Ezek.  xviii,  1-4).  For  this  object 
their  formative  centuries  have  already  developed  the  organic 
principles.  It  remains  to  make  these  a  spiritual  power  in 
the  individual  heart,  in  order  that  the  body  of  the  nation 
may  be  cultured  and  sound  through  and  through  ;  and  so, 
with  the  discipline  of  'exile  and  return  from  it  they  enter 
upon  a  new  era,  which  will  date  no  more  from  Fgypt  but 
from  Chaldca  (see  Jer.  xvi,  14,  15  ;  xxiii,  7,  8),  and  the  lands 
whither  their  God,  for  their  salvation,  had  driven  them. 


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CHAPTER  VI 

LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

[From  586  to  516  B.C.] 

WHEN  the  Jewish  people  were  exiled  to  Chaldea,  the 
motive  of  the  deportation  was  involved  in  a  vast 
scheme  on  the  part  of  the  young  king  Nebuchadnezzar  for 
Motive  of  the  the  upbuilding  of  a  world  empire  and  a  capital 
Deportation  which  should  be,  and  which  accordingly  became, 
one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world.  In  the  words  of  a  modern 
historian  :  "  Nebuchadnezzar  needed  builders  for  his  city, 
and  he  needed  a  population  for  it  when  built.  He  must 
have  husbandmen  for  his  fields,  artificers  and  traders  for 
his  commerce,  soldiers  for  his  armies,  sailors  for  his  ships, 
slaves  for  his  palaces.  His  foreign  wars  gave  him  what  he 
sought.  When  a  country  was  subdued  or  a  city  taken,  the 
best  of  its  inhabitants,  the  strongest  and  bravest  and  most 
capable,  were  conveyed  forthwith  to  Babylon.  Both  Greeks 
and  Jews  describe  this  process  undef  the  same  metaphor  — 
that  of  sweeping  as  with  a  dragnet  (see  Hab.  i,  15).  Other 
lands  were  emptied,  that  the  great  city  might  be  filled. 
Sometimes  almost  the  entire  population  of  a  conquered  state 
was  swept  into  its  vast  enceinte,  or  dispersed  through  the 
various  towns  and  villages  of  Babylonia,  the  central  province 
and  nucleus  of  the  Empire.  From  the  ancient  cities  of 
I'",gypt,  from  the  pasture-lands  of  Syria,  from  the  great 
seaports  of  Phoenicia,  the  captive  multitudes  poured  into 
Babylon.  The  Jews  were  just  such  subjects  as  a  king  like 
Nebuchadnezzar  required  ;  and  so  once  and  again  his  armies 
appeared  in  Palestine,   and  carried  off,  in  relays,  all  save 

[^54] 


LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

the  dregs  of  the  nation.  Nebuchadnezzar  required  citizens; 
Jehovah  sought  a  people  purified  by  expatriation."  ^ 

This  motive  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  conquests  was  very  dif- 
ferent from  what  had  actuated  the  Assyrian  kings,  Sargon 
and  Sennacherib  (722  and  701  b.c),  when  the  northern  king- 
dom fell  and  the  cities  of  Judah  were  ravaged.  Their  motive 
had  been  pillage  and  lust  of  military  glory,  and  their  aim 
was  to  break  the  spirit  of  the  nations  they  conquered. 
Nebuchadnezzar's  motive  was  to  a  greater  extent  civilizing 
and  upbuilding.  If  his  deported  subjects  were  tractable 
they  were  treated  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  forfeit  their  self- 
respect  or  liberty  of  opinion  and  worship.  They  were  in  fact 
more  like  a  transplanted  citizenry  than  like  despised  slaves. 

As  intimated  above,  they  went,  so.  to  say,  in  relays. 
It  was  in  604  B.C.  that  the  seventy  years'  term  of  exile 

TheSucces-  (^^-  l^^'  ^^^'  ^^'  ^ ^  "'  ^^"-  ^^'  ")  virtually  be- 
sive  Relays  gan  ;  whcn  Nebuchadnezzar,  in  the  fourth  year 
0  Captivity  q£  King  Jehoiakim  (2  Kings  xxiv,  i),  appeared 
before  Jerusalem  and,  forcing  the  weak  Judean  monarch  to 
transfer  allegiance  from  Pharaoh  Necho  of  Egypt  to  him, 
took  away  vessels  from  the  Temple  and  several  youths  of 
the  seed  royal  as  hostages,  the  latter  to  be  trained  for 
responsible  positions  at  his  court.  Among  these  was  a  lad 
of  about  fourteen  years  old  named  Daniel  (Dan.  i,  1-4).^ 

Again  in  597  b.c,  when  Jehoiachin,  or  Jeconiah,  the 
son  of  Jehoiakim,  had  been  king  only  three  months, 
Nebuchadnezzar  appeared  before  Jerusalem,  the  young 
king  surrendered  his  whole  court  to  him  without  fighting, 
and  all  the  best  elements  of  the  nation,  from  princes  and 
men  of  might  down  to  craftsmen  and  smiths,  were  carried 
to  Babylon,  leaving  behind  only  the  poorest  sort  of  the 
people  of  the  land  (2  Kings  xxiv,   10-16).    It  was  to  this 

1  Hunter,  "  The  Story  of  Daniel,"  p.  28. 

^  The  author  of  the  Book  of  Daniel,  writing  many  years  later,  seems  to 
have  got  his  date  ("  third  year  ")  a  year  or  so  early. 

[35s] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAI.  LITERATURE 

company  of  exiles,  likening  them  to  "good  figs,"  that  Jere- 
miah gave  his  message  of  hope  (Jer.  xxiv,  4-7)  ;  to  them 
also  that  some  years  after  he  wrote  his  friendly  and  re- 
assuring letter  (Jer.  xxix,  1-14).^  Arrived  in  Babylon,  the 
captives,  apparently  without  the  infliction  of  special  indig- 
nities, were  distributed  to  their  allotted  places.  The  body 
of  them  was  taken  to  Tel-Abib  near  the  present  Nippur, 
about  fifty  miles  from  Babylon,  on  the  great  irrigating 
canal  Chebar ;  where  as  a  community  they  were  to  make 
a  home,  cultivate  their  fields,  adapt  their  old  customs  to 
new  conditions,  and  become  citizens  of  this  strange  crowded 
land.  It  was  apparently  here,  or  in  some  such  place  as  this, 
that  they  received  Jeremiah's  letter  of  good  advice. 

Jehoiachin  the  king,  in  Babylon,  became  the  royal  prisoner 
of  Judah  ;  and  we  lose  sight  and  direct  report  of  him  for 
thirty-seven  years. 

Zedekiah,  the  uncle  of  Jehoiachin,  whom  Nebuchadnezzar 
had  installed  as  regent  in  Jerusalem  on  oath  of  good  be- 
havior, after  an  uneasy  and  vacillating  reign  of  eleven  years, 
drew  the  wrath  of  the  Babylonian  monarch  again  upon 
Jerusalem ;  and  the  city  was  besieged  and  taken,  the  Temple 
destroyed,  and  Zedekiah  was  caught  trying  to  escape,  his 
sons  slain  before  his  eyes,  and  he,  his  eyes  put  out,  was 
carried  in  chains  to  Babylon,  where  he  died.  Thus  the 
Judean  state  was  broken  up  in  untold  horrors  of  siege  and 
battle,  and  the  people  were  scattered,  some  to  Egypt,  some 
to  surrounding  lands,  and  some  to  Babylon.  This,  the  last 
relay  of  captivity,  was  in  586  B.C.  It  was  the  event  com- 
memorated in  the  Book  of  Lamentations,  a  disaster  sharing 
with  the  final  destruction  of  the  Jewish  state  in  the  mourn- 
ing observed  at  the  Jews'  Wailing  Place  in  Jerusalem. 

From  the  elements  thus  transplanted  at  different  times 
to  Babylon  we  are  to  get  an  idea  of  literary  and  cultural 
influences  available  in  their  new  conditions  and  allegiance. 

1  Sec  above,  p.  243. 

[^56] 


.         LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

I.  Literary  Activities  in  Chaldea 

The  Jewish  people  were  now  in  the  center  of  the  greatest 
empire  of  the  earth,  surrounded  by  all  the  splendors  of  a 
wealthy  and  idolatrous  civilization,  in  contact  with  the  busy 
activities  of  a  prosperous  monarchy,  witnesses  of  and  doubt- 
less participators  in  its  enterprises  of  husbandry,  building, 
and  commerce,  and  on  the  whole  much  more  comfortably 
situated  than  they  had  been  in  their  rugged  land  of  Judah. 
With  the  keen  worldly  genius  so  characteristic  of  this  race, 
the  temptation  would  be  stronger  and  subtler  than  ever  to 
merge  their  national  identity  with  that  of  their  captors,  and 
doubtless  many  yielded.  Rut  the  stamina  and  resiliency  of  a 
people  educated  in  the  school  of  Jehovah  was  here  meeting 
its  supreme  test.  Out  of  this  sequestered  life,  with  its  sense 
of  common  social  and  religious  interests,  and  with  the  in- 
stinctively felt  duty  of  maintaining  racial  loyalty  and  integ- 
rity, grew  the  literary  fruits  of  the  Chaldean  exile. 

Let  us  note  and  describe  these,  as  connected  with  the 
personal  factors  with  which  they  originate. 


Ezekiel:  Pastor  and  Reconstructor.  While  Jeremiah  in 
Jerusalem,  under  the  eleven  years'  reign  of  the  substitute 
king  Zedekiah,  was  still  at  his  troublesome  task  of  pre- 
paring the  home  people  for  their  hapless  doom  (cf.  Jer, 
xxiv,  8-IO),  a  younger  contemporary  and  disciple  of  his, 
Ezekiel,  among  the  captives  of  the  first  deportation  in 
Chaldea,  was  addressing  himself  to  the  strange  new  con- 
ditions of  this  foreign  land  and  preparing  his  people  for  the 
nobler  destiny  ordained  for  them  (cf.  again  Jer.  xxiv,  4-7). 

Of  priestly  lineage  and  calling,  one  of  the  higher  class 
of  captives  carried  away  with  King  Jehoiachin  in  597  B.C., 
Ezekiel  began  his  active  career  five  years  later  (Ezck.  i,  2), 
and  thus  for  the  six  years  intervening  until  the  overthrow 

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of  Jerusalem  in  586  b.c.  was  collaborator  with  the  older 
prophet  in  the  same  cause.  As  long  as  the  work  of  the 
pair  was  contemporaneous,  with  free  interchange  and  under- 
standing between  Chaldea  and  Jerusalem,  his  prophecy,  like 
that  of  Jeremiah,  took  the  predominant  tone  of  severity 
and  warning  (iv-xxxiii) ;  but  after  the  city  had  fallen  and  the 
political  suspense  was  over  he  set  the  remainder  of  his  mes- 
sage (xxxiv-xlviii)  in  the  higher  key  of  hope  and  reconstruc- 
tion. In  this  timely  work  of  his,  searching  yet  eminently 
creative,  he  must  be  reckoned  as  one  of  the  greatest  spirit- 
ual builders  of  all  time,  though  like  all  deep-laid  work  its 
results  must  germinate  and  ripen  unseen. 

The  author  of  this  prophecy  is  specifically  distinguished  at 
the  outset  as  "  Ezekiel  the  priest,  the  son  of  Buzi "  (i,  3). 
The  Mind  of  1^1  him,  it  may  be  said,  the  priest's  function  and 
the  Priest  ministry  become  typical.  Jeremiah  also  was  of 
priestly  stock ;  but  apparently  before  he  was  of  age  to  enter 
upon  the  ministrations  of  the  Temple  (cf.  Jer.  i,  6)  he  was 
designated  to  a  duty  which  caused  him  long  after  to  be 
esteemed  the  typical  prophet  (cf.  Matt,  xvi,  14),  With  the 
venal  and  time-serving  prophetic  order  of  his  day  he  was 
in  frequent  collision,  both  in  Jerusalem  and  in  Chaldea 
(cf.  Jer.  v,  31  ;  vi,  13;  xxix,  15-23),  and  by  his  sound 
spiritual  sense  brought  out  the  prophetic  office,  as  it  were, 
into  true  and  reasonable  light  (cf.  Jer.  xxiii,  23—32).  With 
the  priestly  office,  in  turn,  which  had  become  equally  cor- 
rupt, it  fell  to  Ezekiel's  duty  to  deal ;  and  this  he  must  do 
as  an  expatriated  man,  in  a  land  where  he  must  be  without 
altar  or  organized  service,  and  while  for  several  years  th.e 
Temple  at  Jerusalem  was  still  standing.  It  was  as  if  he 
must  develop  the  office  on  a  new  line.  In  other  words, 
the  priest,  laying  aside  his  formal  rites  and  trappings,  must 
become  a  pastor,  a  counselor,  a  neighbor  ;  striving  thus  to 
keep  the  true  function  alive  and  adapt  it  to  more  intimate 
and  individual  relations.     Accordingly,  as  soon  as  he  was 

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LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

thirty  years  old  (i,  3),^  the  age  at  which  by  ancient  pre- 
scription he  could  enter  upon  his  office  (cf.  Num.  iv,  3), 
he  received  his  first  visions  from  Jehovah  and  his  com- 
mission to  be  a  "watchman  unto  the  house  of  Israel" 
(iii,  17).  It  was  doubtless  from  the  influence  of  these  pas- 
toral ministrations  of  his  that  the  Jewish  religious  services, 
which  for  the  people  at  home  were  and  continued  to  be 
centered  in  the  Temple,  came  in  time,  for  the  Jews  of  the 
dispersion,  to  be  distributed  in  the  less  elaborate  observances 
of  the  Synagogue. 

One  can  easily  feel,  throughout  the  Book  of  Ezekiel, 
that  his  was  the  distinctive  mind  of  the  priest,  bent  on 
making  the  conscience  of  the  sanctuary  prevail.  The  book 
is  indeed  suffused  with  the  priestly  atmosphere  and  feeling. 
He  carries  the  sense  of  a  responsibility  as  strong  as  life 
itself  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  his  people  (iii,  16-21; 
xxxiii,  1-9)  ;  is  scrupulous  for  cleanness  of  food  in  this 
unclean  land -(iv,  13,  14;  cf.  xxii,  26);  has  a  holy  man's 
dread  of  the  insidious  lure  of  idolatry  (xiv,  1-5)  ;  and  is 
reassured  by  the  promise  that  Jehovah  "will  be  to  them 
a  sanctuary  for  a  little  while  in  the  countries  where  they 
are  come"  (xi,  16).  More  than  this,  his  visions  of  Jehovah's 
glory,  vouchsafed  while  yet  the  city  stands,  deal  with  the 
outraged  Temple  service  in  Jerusalem  (viii-xi)  ;  and  after 
the  downfall  of  the  state  his  constructive  care  and  planning 
are  devoted  to  the  reestablishment  of  Temple  and  service  for 
the  captives  on  their  return  (xl-xlviii).  All  this  is  of  the 
essential  priestly  consciousness  and  temperament,  reflecting 
a  mind  that  by  hereditary  tradition  and  training  demands  a 
pure  and  orderly  system  of  worship.  In  the  absence  of 
liturgical  apparatus,  however,  he  must  needs  resort  to  more 
intimate  and  personal  methods  than  at  home ;  doing  his 
work  not  by  temple  and  altar  but  by  neighborly  conference 

1  So  I  am  disposed  to  interpret "  the  thirtieth  year"  (i,  i),  though  there 
are  differences  of  opinion  as  to  what  this  means. 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LFIERATURE 

and  counsel,  and  by  literary  portrayal.  So  the  priest  be- 
comes the  pastor ;  the  preacher,  who  may  perhaps  have 
been  debarred  from  public  address  (cf.  iii,  25,  26),  becomes 
the  inventive  man  of  letters. 

As  regards  its  structure,  the  Book  of  Ezekiel,  though  its 
general  movement  is  lucid  enough,  betrays  to  some  extent 
„         ...       the   naivete   of   an   author  to   whom    the  art  of 

Composition 

and  Style  of  literary  invention  is  new.  It  should  be  noted 
tie    00  ^Y^^^  j^jg  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  earliest 

books  to  adopt  the  written  as  distinguished  from  the  oral 
type,  and  his  sense  of  organism  is  naturally  somewhat  un- 
developed. He  has  not  yet  worked  out  the  idea  of  a  logi- 
cally interrelated  structure,  wherein  part  rises  out  of  part 
and  makes  for  consecution  and  climax.  The  framework  of 
the  book,  if  such  it  can  be  called,  is  like  that  of  a  diarist 
or  journalist ;  the  happening  in  time  seeming  to  have  a 
greater  logical  value  in  his  mind  than  it  has  in  the  co- 
ordination of  ideas.  Accordingly,  he  arranges  (or  records) 
his  material  according  to  the  dates  when  messages  from 
Jehovah  came  to  him  ;  which  dates  are  scrupulously  noted, 
mostly  through  the  years  that  intervened  before  the  down- 
fall of  the  Jewish  state.  Two  exceptions  occurring,  wherein 
the  prophet  puts  an  oracle  out  of  its  chronological  order  for 
the  sake  of  logical  continuity,  may  be  noted  as  an  indication 
of  his  developing  sense  of  organism  ;  namely,  xxvi,  xxvii, 
the  eleventh  year  put  with  the  ninth,  and  xxix,  17-20,  the 
twenty-seventh  year  put  by  way  of  correction  with  the  tenth. 

Note.  EzekicVs  Structure.  The  following  table  gives  Ezekiel's 
dates :  ^ 

"  Now  it  came  to  pass  in  the  thirtieth  year,  in  the  fourth  month,  in 
the  fifth  day  of  the  month,  as  I  was  among  the  captives  by  the  river 
Chebar,  that  the  heavens  were  opened  and  I  saw  visions  of  God  "  (i,  i ,  2). 

All  notes  of  time  after  this  refer  to  the  years  of  the  continuance  of 
the  captivity,  beginning  at  Jehoiachin's  deportation.  597  B.C. 

I .  Fifth  Year  of  Captivity,  592  b.  c.  Chapters  i-vii.  Beginning  fourth 
month,  fifth  day  (cf.  above,  thirtieth  year). 

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LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

2.  Sixth  Year  of  Captivity,  591  b.c.  Chapters  viii-xix.  Beginning 
sixth  month,  fifth  day. 

3.  Seventh  Year  of  Captivity,  590  n.c.  Chapters  xx-xxiii.  Begin- 
ning fifth  month,  tenth  day. 

4.  Ninth  Year  of  Captivity,  58815.0'.  Chapters  xxiv,  xxv.  Supple- 
mented by  corrected  oracle  on  Tyre,  dating  from  eleventh  year  (first 
day  of  month),  5S6  15.  c.  Chapters  xxvi-xxviii.  Beginning  tenth  month, 
tenth  day. 

5.  Tenth  Year  of  Captivity,  587  B.C.  Beginning  tenth  month, 
twelfth  day.  Oracles  on  Egypt,  chapters  xxix-xxxii.  Other  dates  inter- 
calated, eleventh  year,  third  month,  first  day,  chapter  xxxi,  and  twelfth 
year,  twelfth  month,  first  day,  chapter  xxxii. 

6.  Twelfth  Year  of  Captivity,  585  k.  c.  Chapters  xxxiii,  21-xxxix. 
Beginning  tenth  month,  fifth  day,  when  a  fugitive  arrived  in  Babylon 
and  announced  the  fall  of  Jerusalem. 

7.  Twenty-fifth  Year  of  Captivity,  572  K.c.  Chapters  xl-xlviii. 
Beginning  in  the  opening  of  the  year,  tenth  day  of  the  month. 

[The  passage  on  the  futile  siege  of  Tyre,  xxix,  i  7-20,  dating  from 
the  twenty-seventh  year  of  captivity,  first  month,  first  day  of  the  month, 
is  Ezekiel's  last  dated  prophecy,  570  B.C.,  ten  years  before  the  release 
of  Jehoiachin  from  prison.] 

The  style  of  the  book,  while  vigorous  and  vivid,  shows 
similar  marks  of  a  literary  art  not  quite  subdued  to  a  limpid 
repose  and  naturalness.  The  staring  effects  of  style  with 
which  the  work  abounds — visions,  symbolic  figures,  parables, 
acted  prophecies  —  seem  to  a  degree  self-conscious  and  elabr 
orated.  In  the  descriptive  passages,  too,  the  choice  of  details 
is  rather  accumulative  than  selective,  as  if  the  author  had  not 
mastered  the  art  of  making  a  little  description  go  a  good  way. 
One  can  feel  this  everywhere  in  the  symbol  (for  example,  iii, 
1-3;  xlvii,  1-12),  imagery  (for  example,  xvii,  i-io),  and 
acted  prophecy  (for  example,  iv,  1-8)  with  which  his  work 
is  alive. 

The  most  salient  trait  of  Ezekiel's  style,  perhaps,  is  his  ex- 
traordinary realistic  and  visualizing  sense.  Every  idea  seems 
to  stand  out  in  concrete  form  and  measure  and  color,  as  if 
the  matter-of-fact  observer  were  usurping  the  idealizing  con- 
sciousness of  the  poet.    This  visualizing  power  may  be  felt 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

in  such  passages  as  his  celebrated  vision  of  "  the  appearance 
of  the  likeness  of  the  glory  of  Jehovah"  (i,  4-28),  described 
thus  in  periphrastic  terms  which  virtually  evade  the  actual 
sigJit  of  God ;  his  realistic  vision  of  the  charnel  valley 
(xxxvii,  1-15);  and  in  the  architectural  details  of  the  pro- 
jected new  temple  (xl-xlii),  in  which  last  the  poet  yields 
place  to  the  artisan.  In  several  cases  his  intense  realization 
of  things  has  the  effect  of  clairvoyance  (for  example,  viii, 
3-18  ;  cf.  xxi,  21,  22)  or  telepathy  (xxiv,  2).  No  other  prophet 
has  this  power  in  such  degree.  It  is  as  if,  after  all  the  dim 
ways  through  which  Jehovah  had  led  his  people,  the  prophet 
felt  himself  walking  almost  in  the  blaze  of  fulfillment  (cf .  xii, 
21—24),  and  as  if  his  style  gathered  realism  from  it. 

The  vision  of  the  glory  of  Jehovah,  with  which  the  Book 

of   Ezekiel  opens,   is   not  to   be   regarded,   for  its  literary 

meaning,  as  a  mere  tour  de  force  of  description 

of  Mystic        serving  to  introduce  the  prophet's  account  of  his 

°°  call  and  commission.    It  would  be  an  extravagant 

disproportion  of  means  to  ends  if  that  were  all.  Rather  it 
constitutes  the  setting  for  the  most  searching  and  poetic 
conception  of  the  whole  book. 

True,  the  vision  does  serve  a  very  salutary  purpose  as 
related  to  the  living  faith  of  the  prophet  and  his  expatri- 
ated countrymen.  It  heartens  them  with  the  reassuring 
discovery  that  Jehovah's  presence  is  not  confined  to  the 
homeland,  or  to  the  Holy  Place  still  standing  in  Jerusalem. 
They  can  dismiss  that  ancient  folk-notion ;  for  He  has  ap- 
peared here  in  this  idol-ridden  land  of  Chaldea,  has  given 
His  priest-prophet  a  specific  and  practical  ministry,  and  in- 
spired him  to  say,  "Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah:  Whereas 
I  have  removed  them  far  off  among  the  nations,  and  whereas 
I  have  scattered  them  among  the  countries,  yet  will  I  be  to 
them  a  sanctuary  for  a  little  while  in  the  countries  where 
they  are  come  "  (xi,  16).  This  is  much,  is  of  untold  signifi- 
cance to  Israel  in  this  time  of  ignominy  and  sequestration. 


LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

But  more  than  this.  The  successive  appearances  of  the 
vision  (for  the  appearance  in  the  first  chapter  is  not  the 
only  one),  as  the  prophet  reports  them,  form  in  fact  a  kind 
of  dramatic  framework  for  the  visualizing  of  Jehovah's  inner 
lesson  and  purpose.  The  prophet  next  sees  the  vision  in 
the  sixth  year  of  the  captivity  (viii,  i),  and  in  Jerusalem, 
whither  he  has  been  transported  in  spirit  to  observe  the 
profanations  and  abominations  that  are  practiced  in  the  very 
Temple  courts.  Chapters  viii  to  xi  give  the  account  of  it. 
He  sees  the  whole  Temple  precinct  and  its  secret  places 
infested  with  various  uncouth  rites,  men  worshiping  with 
their  backs  toward  the  Temple  proper  and  in  the  avowed 
belief  that  Jehovah  has  forsaken  the  land  (viii,  12;  ix,  9). 
The  glory  of  Jehovah  is  still  there,  however,  to  eyes  that 
can  see,  as  it  was  in  the  plain  of  Chaldea  (viii,  4).  But 
even  while  he  looks,  after  certain  mystic  commands  and 
oracles  are  given  he  beholds  it  rise  from  the  inner  fane,  its 
ancient  dwelling  place,  stand  awhile  over  the  threshold  (x,  4), 
then  with  its  convoy  of  cherubim  remove  from  there,  pause 
over  the  east  gate  (x,  18,  19),  and  finally,  after  various 
oracles  minatory  and  comforting  uttered,  depart  from  the 
desecrated  city  and  take  up  its  station  on  the  Mount  of 
Olives  ("the  mountain  which  is  on  the  east  side  of  the 
city").  It  is  as  if  Jehovah  were  banished  but  still  on 
guard  "(xi,  22,  23). 

Here  the  vision  leaves  hirn  to  his  years  of  prophetic  and 
priestly  ministry.  When,  however,  in  the  twenty-fifth  year 
of  the  captivity  (xl,  i),  he  returns  in  spirit  to  Jerusalem, 
now  fourteen  years  in  ruins,  and  has  seen  completed  the 
elaborate  plans  for  the  rebuilding  and  reconsecration  of  the 
Temple,  he  is  taken  to  the  eastward-looking  gate,  and  there 
he  sees  again  the  same  glory  of  Jehovah  reappear  "  from 
the  way  of  the  east,"  its  unseen  station,  and  resume  its 
residence  in  the  rebuilt  Holy  Place,  filling  it  with  conse- 
cration  and   splendor    (xliii,    1-5).     It   is   from    under   the 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

threshold  of  this  restored  Temple  that  the  prophet,  when 
all  is  in  its  new  order,  sees  living  waters  issuing  eastward 
toward  the  Dead  Sea  region  and  deepening  into  a  mighty 
river,  a  source  of  healing  and  purity  and  fruitfulness  for 
all  the  nations  (xlvii,  1-12). 

Thus,  as  we  follow  the  movement  of  this  mystic  vision, 
with  its  wonderful  blend  of  realism  and  symbol,  we  find  it 
a  singularly  poetic  setting  for  the  great  ideal  which  pos- 
sessed the  priestly  prophetic  mind  of  Ezekiel,  the  ideal  of 
a  religion  and  cultus  which  should  be  as  it  were  a  new 
creation  in  Israel.  We  can  gauge  the  informing  spirit  of 
his  whole  career  from  this  ;  it  was  the  inspiration  that  sup- 
ported him  in  his  years  of  striving  with  a  ""  rebellious 
house  "  (cf.  iii,  8,  9), 

Toward  this  great  end  he  worked  consistently  as  occasion 
served,  with  his  eye  on  conditions  alike  in  Chaldea  and 
wi  1  T  -  Jerusalem,  until  in  586  b.c.  city  and  Temple 
saiem  Awaits  fell.  More  than  half  of  his  book,  in  fact,  ic 
her  Doom  taken  up  with  oracles  dated  between  the  fifth 
year  of  King  Jehoiachin's  captivity  (i,  2)  and  the  twelfth, 
in  which  latter  year  a  fugitive  from  the  siege  reported  to 
him  that  the  city  was  smitten  (xxxiii,  21).  During  that 
time  he  had  a  keen  sense,  at  times  almost  clairvoyant  or 
telepathic,  of  what  was  going  on  in  the  homeland  :  of  the 
inevitable  doom  of  the  city  (iv,  v)  ;  of  the  shameless  idol- 
atries of  the  Temple  and  infidelity  of  the  leaders  (viii,  ix)  ; 
of  the  faithlessness  of  King  Zedekiah  to  his  word  (xvii, 
11-21);  of  the  divination  held  by  the  invading  king  "at 
the  parting  of  the  way  "  and  the  decision  to  march  against 
Jerusalem  instead  of  Kabbah  of  Ammon  (xxi,  18-27);  of 
the  beginning  of  the  actual  siege,  wherein  the  city  was  to 
be  destroyed  in  its  dirt  like  a  rusty  caldron  (xxiv,  1-14). 
All  these  things  he  makes  the  occasion  of  oracles,  in  which 
his  realizing  imagination  ranges  over  a  crowded  field  of 
figure  and  allegory,  riddling  parable  (xvii,  2)  and  lamentation 

[264] 


LITERARY   FRUITS   OF  THI':   EXILE 

(xix,  I),  in  his  endeavor  to  bring  home  to  Israel  their  perilous 
moral  and  spiritual  plight. 

With  the  exiles  among  whom  he  dwells,  also,  he  is  con- 
cerned ;  and  mainly  lest  in  this  land  of  idols  they  be 
ensnared  by  the  insidious  lure  and  luxury  of  their  sur- 
roundings, "taking  the  idols  into  their  hearts,"  and  losing 
in  consequence  the  sanity,  the  poise,  the  singleness  of  vision 
which  loyalty  to  Jehovah  would  ensure.  What  his  plea 
amounts  to  is  the  alternative  of  debauching  their  own  minds 
or  keeping  them  straight  and  sound  ;  and  the  prophet  puts 
it  in  terms  of  their  relation  to  the  word  of  Jehovah.  When 
the  elders  of  Israel  come  to  sit  before  him,  as  in  old  time 
the  elders  sat  before  Elisha  (cf.  2  Kings  vi,  32),  the  word 
from  Jehovah  is,  ""  Son  of  man,  these  men  have  taken  their 
idols  into  their  heart,  and  put  the  stumblingblock  of  their 
iniquity  before  their  face  :  should  I  be  inquired  of  at  all  by 
them .''  Therefore  speak  unto  them,  and  say  unto  them, 
Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah:  'Every  man  of  the  house 
of  Israel  that  taketh  his  idols  into  his  heart,  and  putteth 
the  stumblingblock  of  his  iniquity  before  his  face,  and 
Cometh  to  the  prophet ;  I  Jehovah  will  answer  him  therein 
according  to  the  multitude  of  his  idols ;  that  I  may  take  the 
house  of  Israel  in  their  own  heart,  because  they  are  all  es- 
tranged from  me  through  their  idols'"  (see  xiv,   i-ii). 

Such  is  Ezekiel's  arraignment  of  his  people  whenever 
the  leaders  come  to  him  to  inquire.  In  an  earlier  session 
with  them  (viii,  i),  he  exposes  by  his  trance  visit  to  Jeru- 
salem the  same  idolatrous  infection  and  estrangement  as  it 
is  dominant  there  :  "  Son  of  man,  hast  thou  seen  what  the 
elders  of  the  house  of  Israel  do  in  the  dark,  every  man  in 
his  chambers  of  imagery  ?  for  they  say,  Jehovah  seeth  us 
not;  Jehovah  hath  forsaken  the  land"  (viii,  12).  And  in 
a  later  session  he  denies  their  request  for  an  oracle,  on  the 
ground  that  their  inveterate  idolatrous  tendency,  imbibed 
through  all  their  history  from  wilderness  days,  has  brought 

[^65] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

them  to  the  danger  of  lapsing  from  their  noble  traditions 
and  becoming  merged  with  the  heathen.  "  Shall  I  be  in- 
quired of  by  you,  O  house  of  Israel  ?  As  I  live,  saith  the 
Lord  Jehovah,  I  will  not  be  inquired  of  by  you  ;  and  that 
which  Cometh  into  your  mind  shall  not  be  at  all,  in  that 
ye  say,  '  We  will  be  as  the  nations,  as  the  families  of  the 
countries,  to  serve  wood  and  stone'"  (xx,  31,  32).  Thus 
Ezekiel's  contention,  like  that  of  all  the  prophets,  is  with 
his  people's  mind,  the  mind  that  an  idolatrous  imagination 
produces,  a  mind  closed  to  the  pure  word  of  God.  With 
their  heart,  too,  their  nature  as  expressed  ideally  in  love  and 
loyalty,  he  has  a  still  stronger  arraignment ;  and  to  set  this 
forth  he  has  recourse  to  the  figure  of  adultery,  used  by  the 
prophets  since  Hosea  ;  ^  which  figure  he  intensifies  and  fol- 
lows into  lengthy  detail  in  an  allegorico-historical  review,  chap- 
ter xvi,  and  in  the  parable  of  Oholah  and  Oholibah,  applied 
to  the  two  capital  cities  Samaria  and  Jerusalem,  chapter  xxiii. 
Besides  this  fight  for  the  disinfecting  of  the  nation's 
mind,  we  have  to  note  the  noble  team  w^ork  that  Ezekiel 
and  his  contemporary  Jeremiah  were  doing  together,  Ezekiel 
to  better  advantage  because,  being  removed  from  the  tur- 
moil of  an  inevitable  crisis,  he  could  estimate  matters  as  it 
were  from  a  distance  and  get  their  bearings  and  perspective. 
One  main  difficulty  that  both  prophets  felt  in  Israel  was 
the  lack  of  wise  and  upright  leadership.  The  power  of  a 
masterful  personality,  some 

still  strong  man  in  a  blatant  land, 

was  sorely  needed  ;  the  pair  evidently  did  not  realize  what 
an  influence  they  themselves  were.  "'  And  I  sought  for  a 
man  among  them,"  was  Ezekiel's  word  from  Jehovah,  "that 
should  build  up  the  wall,  and  stand  in  the  gap  before  me  for 
the  land,  that  T  should  not  destroy  it ;  but  I  found  none  " 
(xxii,  30;  cf.  Jer.  V,  i).    A  similar  lack  is  predicted  of  the 

1  See  above,  p.  155. 
[266] 


LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

great  empire  of  Babylon,  where  the  exiles  now  are,  in 
Isaiah  xiii,  12,  and  in  the  Second  Isaiah  xli,  28.  True,  there 
were  prophets  galore,  ready  to  inflame  the  people's  mind 
with  radiant  hopes  ;  but  both  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel  have 
a  sweeping  indictment  against  them  (Jer.  xxiii,  23-32  ; 
Ezek.  xiii)  ;  they  are  "  fool  prophets,  that  follow  their  own 
spirit  and  have  seen  nothing"  (xiii,  3)  —  shallow,  unmotived 
diviners,  whose  false  words  "  have  healed  also  the  hurt  of 
my  people  slightly,  saying,  '  Peace,  peace,'  when  there  is 
no  peace"  (Jer.  vi,  14;  viii,  11);  or  as  Ezekiel  puts  it  in 
metaphor,  "they  have  seduced  my  people,  saying,  'Peace'; 
and  there  is  no  peace  ;  and  when  one  buildeth  up  a  wall, 
behold,  they  daub  it  with  whitewash  "  (xiii,  10).  It  is  no 
time  for  shortsighted  or  ungrounded  hopes.  Both  prophets, 
feeling  the  gravity  of  the  situation,  are  virtually  committed 
to  the  truth  enunciated  later  by  the  Second  Isaiah,  "There 
is  no  peace,  saith  Jehovah,  to  the  wicked  "  (Isa.  xlviii,  22  ; 
Ivii,  21);  and  the  perpetual  fight  of  prophecy  is  not  with 
armies  or  monarchies  but  with  wickedness.  So  when  the 
king  of  Babylon  has  cast  the  lot  to  invade  Jerusalem, 
where  ""  the  prince  of  Israel "  (Zedekiah)  is  nearing  his 
fate,  Ezekiel 's  oracle  sets  its  hope  on  a  personality  yet  to 
come:  "I  will  overturn,  overturn,  overturn  it:  this  also 
shall  be  no  more,  until  he  come  whose  right  it  is  ;  and  I 
will  give  it  him  "  (xxi,  27). 

The  weightiest  idea,  perhaps,  in  which  the  two  prophets 
are  at  one,  is  the  idea,  deduced  from  a  current  proverb, 
that  henceforth  Jehovah's  account  with  man  must  be  not 
with  the  race  or  clan  or  family,  not  with  vicarious  merit  or 
heredity,  but  with  the  individual  soul.  "In  those  days," 
says  Jeremiah,  "they  shall  say  no  more,  'The  fathers  have 
eaten  sour  grapes,  and  the  children's  teeth  are  set  on  edge.' 
Rut  every  one  shall  die  for  his  own  iniquity :  every  man 
that  eateth  the  sour  grapes,  his  teeth  shall  be  set  on  edge" 
(Jer.  xxxi,  29,  30).    From  this  somber  conclusion,  however, 

[267] 


,     GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

he  goes  on  to  predict  the  era  of  a  new  covenant,  wherein 
each  individual  soul  will  have  the  light  and  law  not  in  his 
neighbor  but  in  himself  (vss.  31-34).  Ezekiel  quotes  the 
same  proverb,  asserting  also  its  discontinuance  (xviii,  2,  3) ; 
and  draws  virtually  the  same  conclusion  in  more  literal 
terms  :  "  Behold,  all  souls  are  mine  ;  as  the  soul  of  the 
father,  so  also  the  soul  of  the  son  is  mine  :  the  soul  that 
sinneth,  it  shall  die"  (vs.  4).  The  chapter  is  taken  up  with 
a  repetitious  enlargement  of  this  proposition,  in  which  the 
prophet  reduces  to  detail  his  idea  of  the  things  in  life  to 
do  or  avoid,  and  closes  with  an  impassioned  plea  to  turn 
from  iniquity  and  make  "a  new  heart  and  a  new  spirit" 
(xviii,  31).  He  takes  up  the  same  line  of  thought  again  in 
chapter  xxxiii,  1-20,  as  a  kind  of  final  warning,  before  the 
doom  of  the  city  is  reported.  In  an  earlier  chapter,  too,  he 
emphasizes  the  like  idea  of  individual  dependence,  in  his 
reiterated  assertion  about  an  imperilled  land,  that  "though 
these  three  men,  Noah,  Daniel,  and  Job,  were  in  it,  they 
should  deliver  but  their  own  souls  by  their  righteousness, 
saith  the  Lord  Jehovah"  (see  xiv,  12-20).  The  time  has 
evidently  come  when  ancestr}^  or  pride  of  race  or  "  pull  " 
with  renowned  men  can  no  longer  be  counted  on  for  sal- 
vation ;  men's  desert  and  destiny  have  become  a  personal 
matter ;  in  this  overthrow  of  their  state,  in  this  ordeal  of 
homelessness  and  dispersion,  each  Israelite  must  learn,  as 
it  were,  to  be  his -own  king.  This  is  perhaps  the  most 
momentous  and  far-reaching  lesson  deduced  by  prophecy 
from  the  Chaldean  exile. 

It  was  not  without  a  sense  of  discouragement  and  failure 
that  the  prophet  finished  his  austere  warnings  and  denunci- 
ations while  Jerusalem  awaited  her  doom.  His  picturesque 
and  intense  literary  portrayals  had  perhaps  overshot  their 
mark,  and  from  his  nervous  lack  of  sympathy  and  humor 
he  had  not  allowed  for  shrinkage  of  effect.  From  the  com- 
plaints he  made,   it  would  seem  that  the  people  came  to 

r  268 1 


LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

discount  his  severe  vehemence  as  due  in  some  degree  to 
literary  exuberance ;  which  led  to  regarding  him  not  as 
an  ex  cathedra  prophet  but  as  a  social  entertainer.  At  the 
close  of  one  of  his  most  lurid  oracles  he  had  to  complain, 
"Ah  Lord  Jehovah!  they  say  of  me,  "Is  he  not  a  speaker 
of  parables?'"  (see  xx,  45-49).  And  even  when  the  long- 
dreaded  doom  of  Jerusalem  was  reported,  and  he  was  de- 
ploring its  fearful  disasters,  the  word  from  Jehovah  which 
punctuated  it  was:  ""And  as  for  thee,  son  of  man,  the 
children  of  thy  people  talk  of  thee  by  the  walls  and  in  the 
doors  of  the  houses,  and  speak  one  to  another,  every  one 
to  his  brother,  saying,  "  Come,  I  pray  you,  and  hear  what 
is  the  word  that  cometh  forth  from  Jehovah.'  And  they 
come  to  thee  as  the  people  cometh,  and  they  sit  before 
thee  as  my  people,  and  they  hear  thy  words,  but  do  them 
not ;  for  with  their  mouth  they  show  much  love,  but  their 
heart  goeth  after  their  gain.  And  lo,  thou  art  unto  them 
as  a  very  lovely  song  of  one  that  hath  a  pleasant  voice,  and 
can  play  well  on  an  instrument ;  for  they  hear  thy  words,  but 
they  do  them  not.  And  when  this  cometh  to  pass  (behold, 
it  cometh),  then  shall  they  know  that  a  prophet  hath  been 
among  them"  (xxxiii,   30-33). 

But  perhaps  his  fervid  pastoral  work  was  having  a  more 
gracious  effect  than  he  deemed.  Perhaps,  after  all,  the 
stress  of  their  idolatrous  obsession  was  yielding  to  their 
own  good  sense,  and  they  were  coming  to  their  ancestral 
heritage  of  simple  faith.  If  so,  they  could  discount  his 
vehemence  ;  the  occasion  for  it  was  passing. 

It  has  been  remarked  above  that  after  the  political  sus- 
pense of  the  nation  was  over  Kzekiel,  like  Jeremiah,  left 
his  note  of  severity  and  warning  and  set  the  remainder  of 
his  message  in  the  higher  key  of  hope  and  reconstruction.^ 
For  Ezekiel,  however,  with  his  priestly  coloring  of  life, 
the  suspense  had  not  been  political  but  religious  ;   he  was 

1  See  above,  p.  258. 
[269] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

concerned  for  the  fate  of  the  Temple  and  its  service  and 

for  the  rehgious  fiber  of  his  people  both  in  Chaldea  and 

Jerusalem.     The  turnin2:-point,  the  pivot,  of  his 
Foregleams      -'  o  i  '  i  > 

of  a  New  prophetic  Strain,  accordingly,  comes  not  when, 
^^^^^  a  year  and  a   half  late,  the  fall  •  of  the  city  is 

reported  to  him  (xxxiii,  21),  but  when  in  the  ninth  year, 
two  years  before  the  end,  he  became  aware  by  a  telepathic 
thrill  that  the  king  of  Babylon  was  drawing  close  to  Jeru- 
salem, and  that  its  doom  therefore  was  inevitable  (xxiv,  i,  2). 
This  seems  to  have  been  the  date  of  cardinal  significance  to 
the  people  ;  noted  as  it  was  by  the  historians  (see  2  Kings 
XXV,  i;  Jer.  Hi,  4),  and  impressed  dramatically  by  the 
prophet's  mute  grief  for  the  death  of  his  wife  (xxiv, 
15-24),  by  which  act  he  made  himself  "a  sign"  to  the 
house  of  Israel  (vss.  24,  27).  And  his  first  thought  is  not, 
like  Jeremiah's,  for  the  horrors  of  siege  and  slaughter  (his 
nature  is  not  so  tender  and  sympathetic  as  Jeremiah's),  but 
for  his  beloved  Temple  and  its  sacred  associations.  "  Thus 
saith  the  Lord  Jehovah:  'Behold,  I  will  profane  my  sanctu- 
ary, the  pride  of  your  power,  the  desire  of  your  eyes,  the 
pity  of  your  soul '"  (vs.  21).  With  this  event,  which  meant 
so  much  to  him,  was  connected,  as  it  \\ould  seem,  a  mys- 
terious impediment  of  dumbness  laid  upon  him  at  the  be- 
ginning of  his  career  (see  iii,  25-27).  When,  however,  he 
became  aware  of  the  investment  of  the  city  he  received  with 
it  the  prediction  that  his  dumbness  would  yield  when  a  fugi- 
tive reported  the  final  catastrophe  to  him  (xxiv,  25—27); 
and  three  years  later  he  recorded  the  literal  fulfillment  of 
this  prediction  (xxxiii,  22).  All  this  seems  to  indicate  that 
Ezekiel's  prophetic  insight  and  conviction,  rijDening  to  the 
time  when  he  could  speak  out  and  reveal  the  real  trend  of 
his  people's  experience  and  mission,  was  a  thing  of  gradual 
growth.  Pending  that  time  it  would  not  do  for  him  to  be 
a  reprover  (cf.  iii,  26) ;  he  must  await  events  in  silence, 
speaking  only  as  Jehovah  opened  his  mouth  (cf.  xxix,  21). 

[270] 


LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

The  first  intimations  of  a  coming  new  order  are  of  a 
negative  character,  having  to  do  with  the  fate  of  the 
neighbor  nations  with  whom  Israel's  destiny  is  involved. 
The  oracle  pronounced  on  all  these  nations  is,  "  And  they 
shall  know  that  I  am  Jehovah."  Such  will  be  the  revela- 
tion of  the  new  order  to  them.  As  soon  as  the  prophet  is 
aware  that  this  is  Jerusalem's  supreme  ordeal,  when  like  a 
caldron  she  must  be  purged  of  her  rust  and  dross  and  dirt 
(xxiv,  3-14;  cf.  xxii,  17-22),  he  devotes  the  chapters  from 
XXV  to  xxxii  to  describing  the  fate  that  shall  overtake  these 
nations  as  a  consequence  of  their  attitude  toward  Jerusalem 
in  this  time  of  her  calamity.  His  intimation  is  that  Israel 
is  destined  to  be  a  kind  of  spiritual  touchstone  for  humanity, 
possessing  a  law  of  life  which  cannot  be  despised  with  im- 
punity, and  which  will  prove  its  universality  when  the  nations 
that  rejoiced  over  her  downfall  are  gone.  Such  is  the  large 
idea  toward  which  all  the  prophets  have  more  or  less  con- 
sciously been  impelled  ;  and  to  Ezekiel  it  is  opening  up  in 
this  negative  way.  Seven  nations  are  chosen  for  this  strain 
of  warning  prophecy ;  with  special  emphasis  on  Tyre  for  her 
commercial  arrogance  (chaps,  xxvi-xxviii,  19;  xxix,  17-20), 
and  on  Egypt,  "  the  great  monster  that  lieth  in  the  midst 
of  his  rivers"  (xxix,  1-16;  xxx-xxxii),  ending  (xxxii,  17-31) 
with  an  impressive  description  of  Egypt  along  with  the  other 
wicked  nations  in  the  sepulchers  of  the  underworld. 

Note.  In  these  chapters  on  the  hostile  nations  we  seem  to  come 
upon  Ezekiel's  sense  of  the  purport  of  the  prophecy  long  ago  given  to 
Abraham,  "  I  will  bless  them  that  bless  thee,  and  him  that  curseth  thee 
will  I  curse ;  and  in  thee  shall  all  the  families  of  the  earth  be  blessed "' 
(Gen.  xii,  3).  Following  are  the  prophet's  reasons  for  the  evil  fate  that 
is  to  overtake  these  seven  neighbor  nations. 

Ammon.  "  Because  thou  saidst,  'Aha,'  against  my  sanctuary,  when  it 
was  profaned ;  and  against  the  land  of  Israel,  when  it  was  made  desolate ; 
and  against  the  house  of  Judah,  when  they  went  into  captivity"  (xxv,  3). 

Moab  and  Seir.  "  Because  that  Moab  and  Seir  do  say,  '  Behold,  the 
house  of  Judah  is  like  unto  all  the  nations '  "  (xxv,  8). 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Edom.  "  Because  that  Edom  hath  dealt  against  the  house  of  Judah 
by  taking  vengeance,  and  hath  greatly  offended  and  revenged  himself 
upon  them  ■■  (xxv,  12).  "Because  thou  hast  had  a  perpetual  enmity, 
and  hast  given  over  the  children  of  Israel  to  the  power  of  the  sword 
in  the  time  of  their  calamity,  in  the  time  of  the  iniquity  of  the  end"" 
(xxxv,  5.    See  also  above,  p.  215). 

Tyre.  "  Because  that  Tyre  hath  said  against  Jerusalem.  '  Aha.  she  is 
broken  that  was  the  gate  of  the  peoples ;  she  is  turned  unto  me :  I  shall 
be  replenished  now  that  she  is  laid  waste  "  ""  (xxvi.  2). 

Sidon.  "  And  there  shall  be  no  more  a  pricking  brier  unto  the  house 
of  Israel,  nor  a  hurting  thorn  of  any  that  are  round  about  them,  that 
did  despite  unto  them  '"  (xxviii,  24). 

Eg)'pt.  "  Because  they  have  been  a  staff  of  reed  to  the  house  of 
Israel.  When  they  took  hold  of  thee  by  the  hand,  thou  didst  break, 
and  didst  rend  all  their  shoulders :  and  when  they  leaned  upon  thee, 
thou  brakest.  and  madest  all  their  loins  to  be  at  a  stand  "  (xxix.  6,  7). 

For  the  general  attitude  of  the  literary  prophets  toward  historical 
movements  and  their  estimate  of  character  in  national  units,  see  above, 
pp.  141.  142. 

When,  however,  in  chapter  xxxiii,  the  fugitive  from 
Jerusalem  brought  the  report  that  the  city  was  smitten,  the 
prophet,  released  from  his  long  dumbness,  entered  at  once 
on  the  reconstructive  strain  that  increasingly  characterizes 
the  latter  part  of  his  prophecy.  No  longer  addressing  him- 
self to  the  nations,  he  turns  to  his  own  people,  as  if  he 
would  trace  to  their  fruitage  the  germs  of  good  that  are  in 
them.  He  begins  —  taking  up  a  strain  which  Jeremiah  has 
broached  and  his  own  experience  has  stressed  —  with  a 
chapter  on  the  shepherds  of  Israel,  who  "feed  themselves" 
and  wrong  the  sheep  (xxxiv  ;  cf.  Jer.  xxiii,  1-4).  As  Jere- 
miah has  made  his  denunciation  the  occasion  of  prophesying 
the  raising  up  of  the  righteous  Branch,  who  "  shall  reign  as 
king  and  deal  wisely."  so  bv  like  sequence  Ezekiel  makes 
his  censure  of  the  unpastoral  shepherds  the  occasion  of  a 
similar  Messianic  oracle:  "And  I  will  set  up  one  shepherd 
over  them,  and  he  shall  feed  them,  even  my  senant  David  ; 
he  shall  feed  them,  and  he  shall  be  their  shepherd.    And  I, 

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LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

Jehovah,  will  be  their  God,  and  my  servant  David  prince 
among  them;  I,  Jehovah,  have  spoken  it"  (xxxiv,  23,  24). 
Thus  from  the  pastor's  office,  into  which  he  has  trans- 
formed his  priesthood,  Ezekiel  deduces  the-  same  prophecy 
that  Micah  broached  more  than  a  century  before  from  the 
little  town  of  Bethlehem  (Mic.  v,  2-5)  ;i  making  the  oracle 
much  more  clear  and  comprehensive,  as  the  time  of  fulfill- 
ment draws  nearer. 

Note.  The  Shepherd  Chapter.  It  may  not  be  superfluous  to  remind 
the  reader  here  that  the  word  "  pastor,"  which  has  become  so  thoroughly 
naturalized  in  our  language,  is  just  the  Latin  word  for  shepherd;  that  is 
why  we  have  used  it  to  characterize  Ezekiel.  This  beautiful  thirty-fourth 
chapter  is,  in  the  shepherd  imagery  of  the  Old  Testament,  what  John  x, 
I -1 8,  is  in  that  of  the  New;  the  relation  of  the  two  passages  being  that 
of  presage  and  fulfillment.  This  chapter  of  Ezekiel  is  in  large  part  the 
original  suggestion  of  the  celebrated  lines  in  Milton's  "  Lycidas  "  (11.  1 14- 
1 29),  describing  as  it  does 

such  as,  for  their  bellies'  sake, 
Creep,  and  intrude,  and  climb  into  the  fold. 
Of  other  care  they  little  reckoning  make 
Than  how  to  scramble  at  the  shearers'  feast, 
And  shove  away  the  worthy  bidden  guest. 
Blind  mouths  !  .  .  . 

The  hungry  sheep  look  up,  and  are  not  fed, 
But,  swoln  with  wind,  and  the  rank  mist  they  draw, 
Rot  inwardly,  and  foul  contagion  spread  ; 
Besides  what  the  grim  wolf  with  privy  paw 
Daily  devours  apace,  and  nothing  said. 

After  an  interlude  of  reiterated  denunciation  upon  Edom 
for  her  envy  and  hatred  in  this  time  of  Israel's  calamity 
(xxxv),  the  prophet  proceeds  from  the  thought  of  the  shep- 
herds with  their  divinely  appointed  Head,  to  the  thought  of 
the  land  and  people  over  whom  they  are  to  have  charge. 
True  to  his  priestly  temperament,  he  begins  with  the  moun- 
tains of  Israel,  where  for  centuries  has  been  carried  on  the 
foul  and  corrupting  high-place  worship,  and  whose  desolation 

^  See  above,  p.  164. 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

he  has  already  predicted  (vi ;  cf.  xx,  27-32).  At  this  time 
when  the  enemy  has  said,  "Aha!"  and,  "The  ancient  high 
places  are  ours  in  possession"  (xxxvi,  2),  he  prophesies  that 
these  mountains  will  be  purged  and  purified,  will  become 
populous  and  fruitful,  and  be  inhabited  by  a  regenerate 
people  sprinkled  with  clean  water,  with  a  heart  of  flesh 
taking  the  place  of  their  stony  heart  —  a  heart  made  into  a 
fit  abode  of  the  divine  Spirit  (xxxvi,  25-31  ;  cf.  xi,  18-20). 
"  So  shall  the  waste  cities  be  filled  with  flocks  of  men  ;  and 
they  shall  know  that  I  am  Jehovah  "  (xxxvi,  38). 

Following  upon  this  glowing  oracle  —  as  if  the  prophet's 
intense  imagination  must  go  on  to  visualize,  in  all  its 
process,    the   wonderful   uprise   of   this   coming   new    order 

—  is  his  celebrated  description  of  the  valley  of  dry  bones 
(xxxvii,  I- 1 4),  wherein  at  the  bidding  of  Jehovah  througH 
his  prophet  the  bones'  come  together  out  of  dust  and  dis- 
persion and  take'  on  flesh  and  sinew,  and  at  another  bid- 
ding inhale  breath  and  consciousness,  "and  they  lived,  and 
stood  up  upon  their  feet,  an  exceeding  great  army."  It 
is  a  vision  ;  but  it  is  made  actual  in  terms  of  resurrection 

—  like  a  veritable  coming  out  of  the  grave  to  new  life. 
Such,  in  Ezekiel's  view,  shall  be  Israel's  uprise  and  return. 
Nor  does  it  mean  part  or  remnant  alone  ;.  the  prophet  is 
thinking  on  a  national  scale.  By  his  acted  parable  of  the 
two  sticks  joined  together  (xxxvii,  15-28),  which  follows 
immediatelv  on  this  vision,  he  brings  out  into  greater  defi- 
niteness  the  prophecies  broached  long  before  (see  Isa.  xi, 
12,  13;  Hos.  i,  1 1  ;  Jer.  iii,  18)  —  of  the  happy  reunion 
of  the  kingdoms  long  separated,  Judah  and  Israel,  in  their 
own  recovered  land,  and  under  one  king  and  shepherd, 
"  my  servant  David,"  who  "  shall  be  their  prince  for  ever." 
Here  we  may  put  the  culmination  of  Ezekiel's  book  of 
prophecy  —  a  book  eminently  characteristic  of  "  Ezekiel 
the  priest,  the  son  of  Buzi "  (i,  3).  The  priestly  mind 
and    coloring    are    consistent    throughout.      His    prophetic 

[^74] 


LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

dream  is  to  see  Israel  reestablished  not  on  a  political  but 
a  religious  basis,  with  a  law  and  spirit  and  cultus  to  corre- 
spond. "  Moreover,"  he  concludes,  "  I  will  make  a  cove- 
nant of  peace  with  them ;  it  shall  be  an  everlasting 
covenant  with  them  ;  and  I  will  place  them,  and  multiply 
them,  and  will  set  my  sanctuary  in  the  midst  of  them 
for  evermore.  My  tabernacle  also  shall  be  with  them  ; 
and  I  will  be  their  God,  and  they  shall  be  my  people. 
And  the  nations  shall  know  that  I  am  Jehovah  that 
sanctifieth  Israel,  when  my  sanctuary  shall  be  in  the 
midst   of   them   for   evermore "    (xxxvii,    26-28). 

But  a  larger  horizon  opens.  He  has  measured  the  fate 
of  Israel  with  that  of  the  seven  neighbor  nations,  and  has 
AnApocaiyp-  sccu  his  beloved  people  surviving  their  ordeal  of 
tic  Portent  exile,  restored,  reunited,  happy  in  their  purged 
and  prosperous  homeland.  But  there  are  other  nations  be- 
yond, fierce  and  strange,  who  have  not  yet  known  the  touch- 
stone of  Jehovah's  light  and  law;  and  "after  many  days" 
they  shall  be  visited,  and  Israel  shall  undergo  a  final  and 
triumphant  test.  In  describing  this  ultimate  event  Ezekiel 
launches  boldly  into  apocalyptic  —  a  type  of  prophecy  in 
which  he  is  succeeded  by  Daniel  and  a  whole  school  ;  it  is 
true  of  him  as  his  sceptical  people  had  said,  "  The  vision 
that  he  seeth  is  for  many  days  to  come,  and  he  prophesieth 
of  times  that  are  far  off"  (xii,  27).  "  Son  of  man,"  is  the 
divine  bidding,  "  set  thy  face  toward  Gog,  of  the  land  of 
Magog,  the  prince  of  Rosh,  Meshech,  and  Tubal"  (xxxviii,  2). 
This  Gog  seems  to  have  been  a  monarch  who  was  a  kind  of 
emperor  over  several  states  or  provinces.  Jehovah's  word  to 
him  is,  "It  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day,  that  things  shall 
come  into  thy  mind,  and  thou  shalt  devise  an  evil  device"; 
the  device  being  the  valiant  ambition  to  help  himself  by 
the  arbitrary  might  of  militarism  to  the  material  wealth  of 
nations  that  through  their  toil  and  virtue  ha:ve  become  pros- 
perous but  are  now  dwelling  defenseless  and  at  peace  —  a 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

device  which  recent  history  has  made  very  reaHstic  (xxxviii, 
10-13).  Ezekiel  interprets  this,  however,  in  larger  terms. 
It  is  to  be  Gog's  coming  to  judgment,  when  he  will  meet  a 
fate  for  which  his  militarism  has  not  prepared  him  (xxxviii, 
7  ;  cf.  Joel  iii,  9-13).  In  other  words,  this  invasion  of  bar- 
barous hordes  is  taken  as  the  final  uprise  of  the  forces  of 
evil  against  the  righteous ;  and  the  defeat,  which  is  abso- 
lute and  ultimate,  is  attributed  not  only  to  the  counter 
might  of  man,  but  to  the  mysterious  power  of  Jehovah, 
who  will  rise  in  fiery  wrath  against  the  outrage,  and  make 
the  invasion  issue  in  the  eternal  confirmation  of  Israel's 
peace,  "for  I  have  poured  out  my  spirit  upon  the  house  of 
Israel,  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah"  (xxxix,  29).  This  prophecy 
of  Gog  and  Magog  became  an  element  of  the  later  apoca- 
lyptic :  it  is  taken  up  and  adapted  to  a  Christian  applica- 
tion, with  supernatural  elements,  in  the  last  book  of  the 
Bible  (see   Rev.  xx,  7-10). 

Fourteen  years  pass  before  we  have  another  dated  proph- 
ecy from  Ezekiel  ;  and  then,  in  the  twenty-fifth  year  of  the 

ni  Pres-  captivity,  he  again,  as  at  the  beginning,  had 
age  to  Fin-  '"  visions  of  God  "  —  or  rather  a  single  vision, 
ished  Plan  vvhich,  with  elucidations,  takes  up  the  remainder 
of  his  book  (xl-xlviii).  It  is  his  long-cherished  ideal  of  a 
rebuilt  Temple  and  of  a  reorganized  cultus.  This  is  so 
vividly  realized  in  his  mind  that  it  stands  before  us  in 
specific  measurements  and  details,  like  an  architect's  and 
statesman's  design.  He  describes  it,  however,  objectively, 
as  is  quite  the  way  of  his  extraordinary  visualizing  sense. 
"In  the  visions  of  God,"  his  account  begins,  "  brought  he  me 
into  the  land  of  Israel,  and  set  me  down  upon  a  very  high 
mountain,  whereon  was  as  it  were  the  frame  of  a  city  on 
the  south.  And  he  brought  me  thither ;  and  behold,  there 
was  a  man,  whose  appearance  was  like  the  appearance  of 
brass,  with  a  line  of  flax  in  his  hand,  and  a  measuring 
reed ;    and   he   stood   in  the  gate "   (xl,   2,   3).     This  man 

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LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

conducts  the  prophet  about  from  point  to  point,  measuring 
systematically  all  the  parts  of  the  Temple  structure,  with 
its  chambers  and  galleries  and  courts,  and  explaining  their 
uses;  "for,"  he  says,  "to  the  intent  that  I  may  show 
them  unto  thee,  art  thou  brought  hither ;  declare  all  that 
thou  seest  to  the  house  of  Israel  "  (xl,  4). 

All  this  reads  like  a  masterly  blend  of  the  imaginative 
and  the  real ;  and  the  rest,  though  spiritual  elements  enter 
to  color  it,  is  equally  so.  In  describing  the  setting  of 
mystic  vision,  we  have  traced  the  movements  of  the  "'  glory 
of  Jehovah  "  onward  to  its  return,  after  banishment,  to  his 
rebuilt  fane.^  When  this  impressive  event  has  taken  place 
(xliii,  1—5),  the  prophet  hears  one  speaking  out  of  the  midst. 
of  the  house  ;  and  a  man  stands  by  him  to  explain  the  fur- 
nishings of  the  Temple,  and  the  laws  and  ordinances  by 
which  it  is  to  be  kept  holy.  This  gives  occasion  to  lay  out 
a  law  of  priesthood  and  service,  an  ordinance  thought  to  be 
intermediate  between  Deuteronomy,  which  was  brought  to 
light  in  Josiah's  time,  and  Leviticus,  which  was  probably 
brought  with  the  completed  Pentateuch  to  Jerusalem  by 
Ezra  the  scribe  and  published  in  444  B.C.  These  chapters 
of  Ezekiel  from  xliii  to  xlvi  were  at  all  events  very  influen- 
tial in  determining  the  final  development  of  the  ritual  law. 

All  this,  with  its  legal  and  architectural  details,  seems 
to  a  modern  imagination  prosaic  enough  ;  but  that  a  genu- 
ine thread  of  poetry  is  woven  with'  it,  and  that  it  is  con- 
ceived more  spiritually  than  literally,  may  be  felt  not  only 
from  the  behavior  of  the  divine  glory  but  from  the  final 
vision  of  the  waters  issuing  from  under  the  threshold  of 
the  Temple  and  gradually  deepening  without  visible  affluents 
as  they  flow  through  the  barren  lands  toward  the  plain  of 
the  Dead  Sea,  where  they  become  the  wholesome  bearers 
of  beauty  and  fertility  and  healing  to  all  the  land  (xlvii, 
,1-12).     It  is  a  symbolical  picture  giving  the  spiritual  key 

^  See  above,  p.  263. 
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GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

to  all  this  later  stage  of  vision.  From  it  the  prophet  goes 
on  (xlvii,  13-xlviii,  35)  in  his  literalistic  way  to  divide  the 
Holy  Land  and  apportion  it  among  the  restored  tribes, 
with  their  prince  and  priesthood,  according  to  a  diagram 
which  in  actual  application  is  as  Utopian  as  is  the  vision 
of  the  waters,  revealing  as  it  does  rather  his  sense  of  order 
and  symmetry  than  his  memory  of  topography.  It  is  his 
prophetic  dream  reduced  to  terms  of  sense  perception  and 
design. 

So  Ezekiel's  long  and  labored  book  comes  to  its  end, 
a  unique  monument  of  watchful  fidelity  and  constructive 
genius.  It  leaves  the  vision  of  temple  and  city  restored 
and  whole ;  with  this  finishing  touch  :  "  And  the  name 
of  the  city  from  that  day  shall  be,  Jehovah  is  there " 
(Jehovah-shammah,  xlviii,  35)  —  for,  as  we  may  note,  he 
has  not  named  it  before. 

II 

Daniel :  Mage,  and  Revealer  at  Court.  As  the  next 
work  to  be  considered  in  this  period  of  the  literature,  the 
Book  of  Daniel,  we  enter  upon  one  of  the  most  significant 
yet  one  of  the  most  occult  books  of  the  Old  Testament. 
In  form  it  is  simple  enough.  It  falls  into  two  nearly  equal 
portions.  The  first  half  (i-vi)  narrates  experiences  of  Daniel 
and  his  three  Jewish  companions,  hostages  and  students  of 
Chaldean  learning  in  Babylon  during  the  exile  ;  relates  also 
two  portentous  dreams  of  King  Nebuchadnezzar  (ii,  iv), 
which  seem,  in  a  sense,  to  strike  the  literary  keynote  of  the 
book.  This  part,  written  of  Daniel  in  the  third  person, 
gives  no  hint  of  authorship.  The  second  half  (vii-xii),  after 
mentioning  Daniel  as  having  had  a  notable  dream  which  he 
recorded  (vii,  i,  2),  gives  the  rest  of  the  book  (except  x,  i) 
in  the  first  person.  This  part  is  made  up  of  a  coordinated 
series  of  dated  visions,  or  revelations,  four  in  number, 
giving  a  forecast   of  conditions   and  events   from  the  year 

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LITERARY  FRUITS   OF  THE   EXILE 

after  Nebuchadnezzar's  death, ^  through  a  succession  of 
world  empires,  to  the  eventual  coming  of  "one  like  unto  a 
son  of  man,"  who  would  inaugurate  an  all-surviving  and 
eternal  kingdom  (vii,  13,  14;  cf.  ii,  44),  before  which  ad- 
vent, however,  a  momentous  crisis  must  be  met  and  weath- 
ered. It  is  to  this  crisis,  indeed, — a  time  of  great  peril  and 
profanation  to  the  basic  Jewish  faith  (see  xi,  28-35), — that 
the  movement  of  the  book  is  steered  as  its  concrete  object 
and  focus  ;  the  ultimate  kingdom  with  its  humane  monarch 
revealing  itself  as  an  apocalyptic  background. 

Thus  the  Book  of  Daniel  is  an  intimate  compound  of 
story  and  prophecy  :  story  rising  out  of  a  cardinal  epoch  of 
history,  prophecy  "a  projection  of  alleged  historic  visions. 
Both  these  elements  have  traits  so  dissimilar  to  what  we 
know  of  exilic  literature  that  we  must  needs  inquire  here 
into  their  relations  to  their  purported  time  and  to  the  cen- 
turies succeeding.  For,  clearly,  it  is  only  in  a  modified 
sense  —  though  not  therefore  less  true  —  that  we  can  reckon 
the  Book  of  Daniel  among  the  literary  fruits  of  the  exile. 

As  we  compare  the  two  portions  of  the  book  a  remark- 
able circumstance  comes  to  light.  The  prophetic  portion, 
The  Literary  though  its  expression  is  studiously  cryptic,  works 
Time'and  ^P  ^°  ^  situation  which  sets  closer  to  known 
Type  historic   fact   than   does  the   story  portion   itself 

wherein  one  would  naturally  look  for  factual  accuracy.  That 
is  to  say,  the  course  of  its  visionary  revelations  draws 
together  to  an  increasingly  intimate  conversance  with  his- 
toric conditions  and  details  until,  especially  in  chapter  xi 
where  the  vision  style  is  dropped,  one  cannot  but  recognize 
the  career  of  Antioclus  IV  (Epiphanes),  who  in  175  to 
164  B.C.,  by  his  despotic  attempt  to  force  Hellenic  culture  on 
the  Jews  of  Palestine,  precipitated  the  Maccabcan  uprising. 
Thus  it  comes  about  that  at  a  point  about  166  b.c,  several 

1  The  first  year  of  Belshazzar  (vii,  i)  ;  but  the  author  apparently  regards 
Belshazzar  as  the  son  and  successor  of  Nebuchadnezzar  (cf.  v,  18). 

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centuries  after  the  Chaldean  exile,  the  prophecies  of  our 
book  become  most  concrete  and  verifiable.  In  marked  dis- 
tinction from  this,  the  story  portion  (i-vi),  betraying  on  the 
part  of  its  writer  merely  such  familiarity  with  the  civic 
history  of  the  exile  as  might  be  current  in  popular  tradition, 
is  inaccurate  as  to  dates,  dynasties,  and  the  like,  while  it  is 
concerned  rather  with  the  inner  character  and  motive  pecu- 
liar to  the  Hebrew  mind.  It  is  biographical,  but  not  such 
biography  as  Daniel  would  have  written  or  dictated.  It  lacks 
the  color  of  experiences  within  one's  lifetime  or  familiar 
environment.  It  harks  back,  rather,  to  the  more  primitive 
manner  of  the  semihistoric  legend,  such  as  we  read  in  the 
stories  of  the  patriarchs  (cf,  especially  the  story  of  Joseph 
in  Genesis)  and  of  preliterary  prophets  like  Elijah  and 
Elisha.  Recall  here  what  has  been  remarked  of  that  naive 
type  of  literature.^  "It  is  an  accepted  datum  of  scientific 
historians,"  says  Professor  A.  R.  Gordon,  "that  legend  .  ,  . 
always  contains  a  nucleus  of  historical  fact."  Such  nucleus 
is  not  often  verifiable,  as  to  its  specific  details,  from  con- 
temporary evidence  ;  this,  however,  not  because  the  legend 
is  untrue  but  because,  taking  the  material  fact  for  granted, 
it  is  concerned  with  a  different  kind  of  truth.  In  the  case 
of  Daniel,  as  we  shall  see,^  an  appreciable  amount  of  con- 
temporary evidence  exists  ;  still,  the  narrative  portion  of  the 
book  belongs  distinctively  to  the  category  of  legend.  This 
trait,  with  its  imperfect  knowledge  of  historical  annals, 
indicates,  as  does  the  prophetic  matter  already  noted,  a  time 
of  composition  much  later  than  the  Chaldean  exile,  when 
factual  minuteness  was  not  essential. 

This  verdict  of  later  composition  is  borne  out  by  the 
literary  type  to  which  the  book  belongs.  As  to  form  the 
Book  of  Daniel  has  the  traits  of  a  species  of  literature 
which  in  times  long  after  the  exile  came  into  favorite  vogue, 
namely,  the  historical  talc,  or,  if  you  please,  historical  fiction. 

^  See  above,  pp.  i  iS,  1 19.  ^  See  below,  p.  2S4. 

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Books  like  Ruth  and  Esther  in  the  canon, ^  and  in  the 
apocrypha  Judith  and  Tobit,  are  of  this  class.  Some  people 
are  reluctant  to  attribute  the  fiction  quality  to  any  part  of 
the  Bible  ;  the  name,  however,  connotes  not  falsity  but  con- 
structive art.  Our  book,  having  the  indubitable  traits  of 
such  art,  bears  much  the  same  relation  to  the  time  of  the 
Chaldean  exile  that  Sir  Walter  Scott's  ""  Ivanhoe "  and 
"  Talisman  "  bear  to  the  time  of  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion, 
and  is  accordingly  to  be  estimated  on  similar  grounds.  Of 
a  work  of  historical  fiction  we  require  verisimilitude,  truth 
to  historical  character  and  movement,  fidelity  to  local  and 
epochal  color.  Though  in  minor  details  it  may  make 
mistakes,  or  even  readjust  factual  circumstances,  it  must, 
while  creating  a  living  picture  of  the  past,  earn  credence  by 
its  essential  conformity  to  known  events  and  conditions.  If 
the  Book  of  Daniel  is  true  in  this  liberal  sense  —  and 
nothing  that  we  know  makes  against  this  —  it  is  a  genuine 
literary  product  of  the  exile. 

That  it  was  so  regarded  from  an  age  not  long  after  its 
publication  seems  indicated  by  the  fact  that  it  was  trans- 
ferred to  another  part  of  the  canon.  Placed  by  the  Hebrew 
scribes  just  after  the  Book  of  Esther  in  the  third  division 
of  their  canon,  the  so-called  Writings  {K't/ntbhiui,  Hagi- 
ographa),  it  was  ranked  by  the  Greek  translators  (the 
Seventy,  Septuagint),  followed  later  by  the  L'atin  version 
(Vulgate),  with  the  greater  prophets,  and  placed  just  after 
Ezekiel.  It  was  evidently  deemed  by  these  later  scholars  a 
contribution  rather  to  history  and  prophecy  than  to  belles- 
lettres,  and  so  its  fiction  element  was  ignored. 

The  Book  of  Daniel  as  we  have  it  is  a  unit  in  matter 
and  manner,  the  finished  work  of  one  mind ;  and  yet, 
along  with  this   indubitable  fact  we  must   reckon  another, 

"^  To  this  list  we  might  add  the  15ook  of  Jonah,  except  for  its  dominat- 
ing strain  of  allegory,  making  us  hesitate  to  rank  it  as  a  historical  tale! 
For  Jonah,  see  below,  p.  41S. 

[281] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

namely,   that    in  the  original    the   book   is  written   in  two 
languages.     More  than  half  of  the  book,  the  portion  from 
ii,  4,  to  the  end  of  chapter  vii  {"  here  is  the  end 
in  Folk  of  the  matter,"  vii,   28),  is  written  in  Aramaic 

radition  ^"  the  Syrian  language,"  ii,  4).  This  language, 
being  related  to  the  more  classical  Hebrew  somewhat  as  the 
French  is  to  the  Latin,  gradually  supplanted  the  Hebrew  as 
a  more  flexible  medium  for  everyday  uses  and  became  the 
vernacular  of  the  common  people.  In  another  way,  too,  it 
was  analogous  to  the  French.  As  early  as  the  time  of 
Isaiah  and  the  Assyrian  invasions  it  was  a  lingua  franca, 
employed  as  French  is  in  modern  tim"es  for  diplomacy  and 
international  intercourse  (cf.  Isa.  xxxvi,  ii);  but  only  the 
Jewish  leaders  understood  it  then.  It  is  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose, however,  that  when  a  century  later  the  Jews  in  a  body 
were  deported  to  Chaldea,  where  the  language  was  strange, 
they  would  avail  themselves  of  this  lingua  franca  and  make 
it  their  all-round  medium  of  communication.  By  the  time 
the  Book  of  Daniel  was  written,  accordingly,  the  Aramaic 
was  as  generally  the  folk's  language  as  Yiddish  is  in  our 
day  ;  while  the  venerable  Hebrew  was  reserved,  as  now,  for 
sacred  and  high  literary  purposes. 

Looking  now  at  this  Aramaic  section  of  the  Book  of 
Daniel,  we  note  that  what  precedes  it  (i,  i-ii,  4)  is  merely 
introductory  to  the  narrative,  and  that  what  follows  it 
(viii-xii)  is  a  series  of  visions  and  revelations  supplementary 
in  character,  which  round  out  and  concentrate  upon  the 
Antiochean  crisis  the  dream  of  Daniel  in  chapter  vii. 
Between  these  lies  the  body  of  the  story.  In  other  words, 
the  real  heart  of  the  book  —  all  indeed  that  reflects  the 
mind  of  the  exile  period  —  is  in  the  tongue  of  the  common 
people,  the  Aramaic. 

This  fact  provokes  the  conjecture  that  the  writer  of  the 
Book  of  Daniel  had  for  his  main  source  a  folk  tradition 
preserved  in  Aramaic  and  giving  in  ]:)oi3ular  story  form  the 

[  -^8-^  J 


LITERARY   FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

experiences  of  Daniel  and  his  companions.  These  would 
naturally  be  given  not  as  they  would  be  reported  by  one 
within  the  atmosphere  of  the  court  but  as  they  would  be 
colored  by  the  imagination  of  a  people  proud  of  their  kins- 
man's success  and  well  aware  of  his  stanch  loyalty  to  the 
faith  of  his  fathers.  As  related  to  the  secrets  of  the  court 
and  its  congested  culture  the  reporters  would  be  outsiders  ; 
but  the  hints  of  events  that  filtered  through  to  them,  as  it 
were,  would  be  reshaped  in  the  image  of  their  own  sphere 
of  thought.  The  result  w'ould  take  much  the  nature  of-  the 
semihistoric  legend  ;  a  legend  molded,  however,  not  so 
much  by  transmission  through  time  as  by  moral  and  spiritual 
intuition.  Such  material  the  writer  of  the  book,  finding  it 
to  his  hand,  could  work  over  in  the  same  language  and  for 
the  same  class  of  readers,  to  meet  the  conditions  of  a  later 
time.  Such  seems  to  me  a  reasonable  explanation  of  the 
Aramaic  source  of  the  Book  of  Daniel.  It  goes  back  to  a 
contemporary  account  —  an  account  crystallized,  as  it  were, 
in  the  penetrative  insight  of  a  spiritually  gifted  people. 

Such  account,  in  the  later  retelling,  could  without  loss  of 
value  bear  inaccuracies  in  historical  detail ;  could  bear  also 
elucidations    due   to   a   riper   stage   of   prophetic 
Surface  of      presage.    Here,   however,  we  must   face   a   new 
History  difficulty,    namely,    the    dearth    of    reference    to 

Daniel  in  contemporary  annals.  A  personage  so  prominent 
in  the  state  as  he  is  represented  to  have  been  ought,  it 
would  seem,  to  be  as  widely  known  to  history  as  to  legend 
and  literature.  As  matter  of  fact,  virtually  all  that  we  know 
of  him  is  what  we  get  from  the  book  itself.  This  of  course 
does  not  constitute  an  arguviciitiim  e  silentio  for  his  non- 
existence. Obvious  reasons  can  be  deduced  both  from  Chal- 
dean and  Hebrew  history  for  silence,  more  indeed  than  for 
publicity.  The  accounts  of  his  career  must  naturally  have 
come  to  posterity  through  channels  under  the  surface  of 
history  —  through  the  hidden  experiences  of  the  sequestered 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

people  of  Israel,  in  whose  depths  through  all  those  years 
of  exile  was  nursed  a  secret  sense  of  divine  choice  ■  and 
promise  and  deliverance.  It  would  not  do  for  these  people 
or  their  leaders,  prisoners  as  they  virtually  were,  to  speak 
out  their  hopes  too  plainly,  still  less  for  Daniel  himself  to 
identify  himself  openly  with  their  cause.  They  must  keep 
their  national  aspirations  hidden,  and  let  the  word  of  Jeho- 
vah make  its  way  by  its  own  intrinsic  superiority.  Such,  as 
we  shall  see,^  was  the  attitude  maintained  by  their  prophets. 
It  was  their  time  to  test  Isaiah's  ancient  lesson  of  "quietness 
and  confidence"  (cf.  Isa.  xxx,  15  ;  xxxii,  17). 

Notwithstanding  this,  however,  there  are  not  wanting 
hints  of  the  attitude  of  the  contemporary  Jewish  mind  toward 
their  gifted  young  kinsman  at  the  Babylonian  court.  We 
may  be  sure  they  kept  proud  and  exultant  track  of  him  — 
perhaps  built  hopes  on  him.  There  is  a  passage  in  Ezekiel, 
written  in  the  sixth  year  of  Jehoiachin's  captivity,  which 
seems  to  indicate  that  the  people  were  inclined  to  bank 
overmuch  on  Daniel's  influence,  with  that  of  others,  to 
promote  their  release.  Speaking  of  the  woes  that  are  still 
imminent  on  the  homeland  —  for  there  is  no  dissociation  of 
interests  between  home  and  exile  —  the  prophet  strenuously 
reiterates,  "  Though  these  three  men,  Noah,  Daniel,  and 
Job,  were  in  it,  they  should  deliver  but  their  own  souls  by 
their  righteousness,  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah  "  (Ezek.  xiv,  14, 
16,  20).  These  words,  if,  as  I  think,'-^  they  refer  to  the 
Daniel  of  our  present  study,  date  from  about  the  time  when 

1  See  below,  p.  296. 

2  It  must  in  fairness  be  owned  here  that  others  think  differently.  As 
Daniel  is  named  between  Noah,  a  patriarchal  worthy,  and  Job,  a  person- 
age of  ancient  tradition,  critics  not  unreasonably  regard  Daniel  as  some 
old-time  great  man,  well  known  to  Ezekiel's  readers  and  typical,  but  other- 
wise entirely  lost  to  legend  or  literature.  Noah  could  not  well  be  omitted 
from  a  connection  like  this,  here  in  the  native  land  where,  as  common 
ancestor  of  Hebrews  and  Chaldeans  alike,  he  would  first  come  to  mind. 
As  for  the  name  "Job,"  this  will  come  up  for  later  consideration;  see 
below,  pp.  467  ff. 

[284] 


LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE   EXILE 

this  contemporary  of  Ezekiel,  younger  though  of  noble 
blood  (cf.  Dan.  i,  3),  was  at  the  height  of  the  wonderful 
distinction  he  had  earned  by  interpreting  King  Nebuchad- 
nezzar's dream  (cf,  ii,  48)  ;  at  just  which  time  also  the 
exiles'  hope  of  speedy  return  to  Jerusalem,  inflamed  by  their 
too  enthusiastic  prophets,  was  running  highest  (cf.  Jer.  xxvii, 
14,  16).  Like  his  prophetic  colleague  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  con- 
scious of  the  deeper  prophetic  issue  at  stake,  sought  to 
disabuse  his  people's,  minds  of  the  false  hopes  they  were 
cherishing.  To  count  on  obtaining  some  sort  of  "'  pull," 
through  personal  influence  at  court,  with  the  powers  of 
state,  was  a  presumption  and  a  fallacy ;  they  must  abandon 
such  vague  notions  and  fall  back  on  their  own  good  be- 
havior. His  reference  to  Daniel,  therefore,  with  this  impli- 
cation, seems  eminently  natural  and  fitting. 

A  later  allusion  of  his  to  Daniel,  made  ironically  in  an 
apostrophe  to  the  self-inflated  prince  of  Tyre,  speaks  of 
Daniel's  wisdom  as  already  famous  and  proverbial,  "  Behold," 
he  says,  "thou  art  wiser  than  Daniel;  there  is  no  secret 
that  is  hidden  from  thee"  (xxviii,  3),  —  a  taunt  which  takes 
for  granted  the  ground  of  Daniel's  eminence,  at  least  among 
his  fellow  countrymen,  as  a  man  of  extraordinary  insight 
and  sagacity. 

Thus  we  have  direct  references  giving  contemporary 
gleams  from  under  the  surface  of  history.  Independently 
of  these,  too,  it  seems  almost  necessary  to  postulate  the 
existence  of  Daniel,  or  of  some  influential  personage  very 
like  him,  at  the  Babylonian  court,  during  the  ordeal  of 
Israel's  long  captivity.  Priests  and  pastors  like  Ezekiel 
were  remote  from  political  affairs ;  we  cannot  count  on 
them  ;  and  yet  that  some  one  was  influential,  or  some  group, 
seems  evident  from  actual  events.  How  otherwise  can  we 
account  for  the  release  of  King  Jehoiachin  and  the  special 
distinction  shown  him  after  thirty-seven  years'  imprisonment 
(2  Kings  XXV,  27-30  =  Jer.  lii,  31-34);   how  otherwise  for 

[285] 


.     GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

the  gracious  consent  of  the  Persian  king  Cyrus,  when  he 
had  taken  Babylon,  to  send  the  Hebrew  captives  home  to 
Palestine  (2  Chron.  xxxvi,  22,  23  =  Ezra  i,  1-3)  —  not  to 
speak  of  their  comfortable  and  prosperous  life  in  Chaldea, 
apparently  free  from  indignities,  at  least  during  Nebuchad- 
nezzar's reign  ?  It  looks  as  if,  under  the  surface  of  recorded 
history,  there  were  a  place  where  Daniel  just  fitted  in. 

Of  a  Daniel  whose  fame  so  lived  in  the  faith  and  pride 
of  his  people  it  is  reasonable,  without  recourse  to  fiction,  to 
predicate  three  things  which  may  be  confidently  rated  as 
matters  of  authentic  fact : 

Plrst,  that  in  a  land  and  court  filled  with  the  artificialities 
and  vagaries  of  heathen  culture  he  preserved,  though  in 
high  official  station,  the  simple  faith  of  his  fathers  and  the 
steadfast  attitude  of  loyalty  to  the  inherited  traditions  of 
his  race  ; 

Second,  that  in  matters  of  foresight  and  statesmanship 
he  possessed  extraordinary  abilities ;  surpassing  in  their 
own  learning  the  attainments  of  a  people  whose  science  and 
occult  wisdom  had  long  been  the  cultural  standard  of  the 
world  ; 

Third,  that  this  endowment  of  his,  with  its  more  rational 
concomitant  of  practical  efficiency,  gained  him  a  trusted 
position  in  the  counsels  and  crises  of  state,  making  him 
thus  an  influential  though  latent  factor  of  welfare,  a  real 
guardian  and  champion  at  court,  through  the  critical  period 
of  Israel's  exile  history. 

In  this  mediatorial  character,  which  seems  to  answer  to 
a  deep  strain  in  the  Hebrew  type,  Daniel  has  notable 
parallels  in  Biblical  annals  :  Joseph  at  the  Egyptian  court 
in  patriarchal  times,  and  Nehemiah  at  the  Persian  court 
more  than  a  century  after  Daniel ;  both  of  whom  like  him, 
eminently  faithful  and  efficient  under  alien  masters,  also 
rendered  indispensable  service  to  their  own  people  in 
times  of   need. 

[286] 


LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

Here  then  we  have  what  we  may  confidently  take  as  the 
factual  nucleus  of  the  Book  of  Daniel.  It  has  the  worth 
and  the  limitations  of  fact.  It  is  external,  not  vital.  The 
rest  of  the  account,  if  we  must  put  it  in  the  category  of 
legend  and  historical  artistry,  belongs  no  less  truly  to  that 
prophetic  insight  which,  sensing  things  as  they  essentially 
are,  penetrates  beyond  the  reach  of  external  fact  to  the 
sphere  of  spiritual  values.  It  is  this  latter  quality  of  the 
work  which  now  comes  up  for  more  definite  consideration. 

As    we    ponder   the    deeper    relations    of    these    Daniel 
stories    we    find    ourselves    spectators    of    a    tremendously 
At  the  Center  S^'^^^  event,  nothing  less   indeed  than  the  spir- 
of  World         itual  encounter  toward  which  the  whole  strange 
^^^^^  course  of    Israel's   history  has   moved.     In  brief 

general  terms  we  may  call  this  the  encounter  of  Jehovah's 
light  and  truth  with  the  world's  dimness  of  lies,  of  the 
gentle  solvent  of  conscience  and  righteousness  with  the 
brutal  despotism  of  self-will  and  idolatry  and  worldly  greed.  ^ 
This  latter,  compounded  with  the  arrogance  of  conquest 
and  self-inflated  culture,  has  reached  its  most  overweening 
stage.  We  see  the  encounter,  of  course,  only  at  its  first 
onset,  and  there  is  more  beyond  that  remains  unseen.  But 
here,  at  the  center  of  world  empire,  with  all  the  elements  in 
readiness,  it  is  as  if  we  had  come  upon  the  long-approached 
focal  point  in  the  campaign  of  ages. 

Is  this  too  high  a  claim  to  make  for  it  .-^  Consider  what 
has  led  up  to  it. 

Jehovah's  campaign  —  we  may  call  it  such,  since  its 
avowed  objective  was  conquest  and  victory  —  was  sensed 
only  vaguely  and  piecemeal  by  the  line  of  prophets,  for 
they  had  in  charge  the  issues  of  their  own  time  and  race  ; 
but  as  wc  put  their  utterances  together  we  see  the  steady 
development  of  Jehovah's  counsels  to  this  end  ever  since 
the  beginning  of  literary  prophecy,^ — nay,  since  the  original 
^  See  above,  pp.  135-137- 
[-^87] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

call  of  Abraham  out  of  this  very  land  of  Chaldea  to  a 
land  where  he  could  initiate  Jehovah's  purpose  of  blessing 
to  all  the  families  of  the  earth  (cf.  Gen.  xii,  1-3).  From 
Chaldea,  the  cradle  of  religion  and  learning,  back  to 
Chaldea  again,  endowed  with  the  principles  of  a  saner 
religion  and  a  sounder  learning ;  such  was  the  divinely 
ordered  mission  of  the  Hebrew  people  from  the  far-off 
patriarchal  times. ^  The  Scripture  movement,  setting  out 
from  Chaldea,  has  at  length  come  round  full  circle ; 
we  can  now,  to  some  degree,  gauge  its  meanings  as  it 
closes  for  the  vital  encounter.  And  what  we  first  see  is 
a  young  man,  hostage  and  captive,  standing  before  the 
mightiest  and  proudest  monarch  of  the  earth,  and  daring 
to  tell  him  the  truth. 

Let  us  take  brief  note  of  the  situation. 

The  encounter,  brought  about  by  King  Nebuchadnezzar's 
disturbing  dreams  (ii,  iv),  is  personal,  the  touch  of  man 
and  man  as  it  were  on  equal  terms.  It  reminds  one  of 
Kipling's  lines  : 

But  there  is  neither  East  nor  West,  Border,  nor  Breed,  nor  Birth, 
When  two  strong  men  stand  face  to  face,  tho'  they  come  from  the  ends 
of  the  earth ! 

The  two  who  face  each  other  —  masterful  men  both  — 
may  be  taken  as  in  a  true  sense  the  epitome,  the  spiritual 
embodiment,  of  their  respective  nations,  each  representing, 
as  it  were,  his  nation's  developed  idea.  It  is  thus,  I 
think,  that  the  author  was  minded  to  portray  them.  We 
seem  to  see  in  them,  as  in  a  condensing  mirror,  two  char- 
acter products,  one  molded  in  the  sane  and  simple  disci- 
pline of  Jehovah,  the  other  in  the  confused  superstitions 
of  heathen  cults,  —  two  types  reduced  as  it  were  to  per- 
sonal and  individual  terms  and  so  posed  that  we  can 
compare  them. 

1  Cf.  above,  pp.  34,  35. 
[288  I 


LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

The  monarch,  personal  epitome  of  "  that  bitter  and  hasty 
nation  "  against  which  Habakkuk  uttered  his  woes  (Hab.  i, 
6  ;  ii,  4-20),  is  at  once  absolute  and  helpless.  He  is  caught 
'in  the  toils  of  his  own  unbalanced  nature.  On  the  one 
hand,  having  everything  that  an  arbitrary  will  accountable 
to  none  can  crave,  —  power  of  life  and  death,  freedom  from 
check  or  criticism,  limitless  command  over  vast  ambitions 
and  designs,  —  he  has  also  the  megalomania,  the  hunger  for 
adulation,  the  motiveless  self-will  and  caprice,  that  go  with 
such  unregulated  power.  On  the  other  hand,  though  un- 
aware of  it,  he  is  at  the  mercy  of  his  learned  and  clever 
class,  being  the  virtual  prey  and  tool  of  "the  magicians, 
and  the  enchanters,  and  the  sorcerers,  and  the  soothsayers, 
and  the  Chaldeans  "  (cf.  ii,  2  ;  iv,  7),  whose  vaunted  learn- 
ing, founded  mainly  on  divination,  is  an  elaborate  guesswork, 
and  whose  answers  to  his  inquiries  are  either  time-serving 
counsels  calculated  to  flatter  his  desires  or  subtle  inter- 
pretations calculated  to  promote  their  own.  All  this  seems 
to  condense  in  one  personage  the  evolved  character  —  or 
rather  the  spiritual  chaos — of  a  huge  unwieldy  state  with- 
out formed  policy  or  principle,  a  realm  bloated  with  sheer 
bigness  and  material  wealth  and  artificial  culture  ;  which, 
as  soon  as  the  white  light  of  Jehovah  shines  in  from  above, 
betrays  its  essential  hollowness  and  sterility.  To  such  a 
spiritual  atmosphere  as  this  it  is  that  the  Book  of  Daniel 
introduces  us.  The  story  is  consistent  and  homogeneous 
throughout :  its  various  episodes  —  the  golden  image  and 
fiery  furnace  (iii),  the  king's  malady  (iv),  Belshazzar's  im- 
pious feast  (v),  the  plot  of  the  lion's  den  (vi)  —  belong  to 
one  barbaric  and  unholy  tissue.  It  becomes  in  later  apoca- 
lyptic thought  the  type  of  all  that  is  infamous  in  autocracy 
and  debasing  influence  (see  Rev.  xiv,  8  ;  xvii,  5).  It  is  the 
polar  opposite  to  the  ordained  kingdom  of  God. 

What    I    have   alluded   to   above   as    the    white    light   of 
Jehovah  came  into  this  murky  atmosphere  not  by  censure 

[  289  ] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

of  evils  as  the  prophets  wrought,  not  by  propaganda  or 
vehemence  at  all ;  it  came  by  the  still  strong  presence  of 
Daniel's  personality.  "  The  righteous  shall  live  by  his 
faith,"  Habakkuk  had  said  of  this  crucial  encounter  of 
Jew  and  Chaldean  (Hab.  ii,  4).  Daniel's  experience  is  the 
victorious  proof  of  this.  He  had  become  naturalized  in 
Chaldean  life  and  lore  ;  could  speak  as  an  expert  in  its 
terms ;  the  whole  book  indeed,  in  its  dominant  coloring 
of  dreams  and  portents  and  mystic  reckonings,  is  con- 
formed not  to  native  Hebrew  thought  but  to  the  idiom  of 
the  Chaldean  magi.  He  does  not  put  forward  the  name 
of  his  God  nor  the  claims  of  his  religious  faith  ;  the  name 
by  which  he  is  known  at  court  (Belteshazzar)  is  com- 
pounded with  the  name  of  the  chief  Chaldean  deity.  He 
does  not  introduce  exotic  ideas  into  his  interpretations. 
And  yet  there  is  a  self-evidencing  genuineness  in  his 
words,  and  still  more  in  his  stanch  personality,  which 
seems  to  clear  the  air  and  set  things  in  true  proportion 
and  balance.  Kings  and  nobles,  turning  to  him  in  their 
perplexities,  have  the  sense  not  only  that  "an  excellent 
spirit,  and  knowledge,  and  understanding,  interpreting  of 
dreams,  and  showing  of  dark  sentences,  and  dissolving 
of  doubts,  were  found  in  the  same  Daniel,  whom  the  king 
named  Belteshazzar"  (v,  12),  but  also,  with  sincere  rever- 
ence and  awe,  that  he  was  a  man  "in  whom  is  the  spirit  of 
the  holy  gods"  (iv,  8,  9;  v,  11,  14).  Here  was  one  who 
had  such  commerce  with  divine  realities  as  their  guesswork 
erudition  could  not  penetrate ;  his  wisdom  traversed  their 
elaborate  polytheistic  cults,  but  they  had  nothing  in  their 
religion  to  rival  or  gainsay  him. 

What  was  the  inner  effect  of  Daniel's  life  on  the  Baby- 
lonian court  we  have  no  means  of  measuring.  But  one  thing 
is  clear :  Jehovah,  in  His  campaign  of  grace,  had  not  left 
Himself  without  able  witness  at  the  center  of  world  empire. 
Nor  had  He  failed  to  impress  upon  King  Nebuchadnezzar 

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LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

through  the  latter's  own  dreams  that  the  type  of  empire 
of  which  he  was  the  "head  of  gold"  (ii,  38),  for  all  its 
wealth  and  splendor,  was  doomed  to  eventual  failure.  It 
looks  too  as  if  the  king  himself,  as  years  and  judgments 
came  upon  him,  became  more  humble  and  humane,  agree- 
ably to  Daniel's  counsel  (cf.  iv,  27).  It  is  notable  how 
little  the  prophets  have  to  say  against  this  king  himself  ; 
Jeremiah  indeed  calls  him  Jehovah's  servant  (Jer.  xliii,  10), 
his  denunciations  being  directed  against  the  realm  (cf.  Jer. 
li,  II,  24,  25).  Some  searching  experience,  it  would  seem, 
as  hinted  in  Daniel's  dream  after  Nebuchadnezzar's  death, 
so  affected  the  spirit  of  the  first  great  empire  that  from 
being  a  beast  of  prey  with  the  wings  of  a  bird  of  prey 
(lion  and  eagle)  it  "was  made  to  stand  upon  two  feet 
as  a  man;  and  a  man's  heart  was  given  to  it"  (vii,  4). 
This  dream,  portraying  a  realm  of  which  the  king  is  the 
virtual  embodiment,  may  imply  the  king's  recovery  from  his 
bestial  obsession  to  the  upward-looking  and  humaner  mind 
(iv,  34)  ;  it  may  connote  also  deliverance  from  the  bondage 
of  degrading  superstitions  to  the  influence  of  a  gracious 
personality.  One  is  reminded  of  Isaiah's  prophecy  of  this 
same  realm  of  Babylon,  "  I  will  make  a  man  more  rare 
than  gold,  even  a  man  than  the  pure  gold  of  Ophir " 
(Isa.  xiii,  12).  The  king,  with  all  the  traditions  of  state 
and  religion  and  learning  upon  him,  must  be  enlightened 
according  to  the  concepts  of  his  own  nature  and  idiom. 
To  have  such  a  genuine  man  therefore  at  his  court,  sharing 
in  the  realm's  life  and  thought,  a  personal  embodiment  of 
integrity  and  wisdom  in  a  confused  and  corrupted  empire, 
must  have  been  an  untold  force  to  open  a  way  out  of  the 
sloughs  of  heathenism.  And  in  such  wise,  according  to 
this  book,  was  ordained  the  career  of  Daniel,  "  whom  the 
king  named  Relteshazzar,"  and  whom  for  the  wisdom  and 
sagacity  that  was  in  him  he  made  "  master  of  the  magicians, 
enchanters,  Chaldeans,  and  soothsayers"  (v,  11,  12), 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Thus  far,  however,  our  study  has  dealt  with  Daniel  only 

as  a  personal  force  and  factor  whose  character  was  in  itself 

How  the         ^  recourse  and  revelation.    There  remains  to  be 

Book  Re-        considered  the  substance  and  theme  of  his  pro- 
fleets  the 
Prophetic       phetic  disclosurc,  —  for  Daniel,  we  will  remem- 

Situation  ^gj-,  is  in  the  revised  estimate  reckoned  not 
among  the  novelists  but  among  the  prophets.  And  here 
the  book,  by  reason  of  its  composition  in  the  midst  of 
later  conditions,  creates  a  difficulty.  This  prophetic  dis- 
closure has  been  so  complicated  with  the  apocalyptic  ele- 
ments of  the  second  half  of  the  book  that  readers  have 
been  too  unmindful  of  its  essential  identity  with  the  con- 
tinuous movement  and  ideal  of  native  Hebrew  prophecy. 
It  has  seemed  to  them  like  something  exotic,  outside  the 
wonted  prophetic  channel.  This,  however,  as  a  brief  con- 
sideration will  show,  is  a  mistaken  notion. 

The  prophecy  is  indeed  put  in  unusual  imagery  and 
phrase.  But  the  circumstances  of  its  utterance  explain  this. 
It  is  prophecy  in  a  new  dialect. 

In  reality  the  Book  of  Daniel  merely  puts  into  the  form 
suited  to  its  fit  audience  what  the  Hebrew  prophets  are 
already  predicting  of  the  progress  and  triumph  of  Jehovah's 
campaign  among  men.  The  audience  is  Chaldean  and  cul- 
tured—  versed  therefore,  as  scholars  and  magi,  in  the  liter- 
ary symbolism  of  dreams  and  abstractions.  The  chief  listener 
is  imperial  and  autocratic — apt  therefore  to  think  and  muse 
not  on  common  matters  but  on  huge  enterprises  of  war  and 
dominion.  Nebuchadnezzar,  his  main  conquests  over,  has 
earth  and  man  at  his  feet ;  he  is  ready  now  to  make  his 
realm  the  exactress  (cf.  Isa.  xiii,  4,  margin)  and  his  capi- 
tal the  wonder  of  the  world.  Already  vague  dreams  are 
gathering  head  in  his  brain,  to  which  his  imagination  and 
his  boundless  egotism  can  set  no  limit. 

To  this  situation  the  prophetic  disclosure  of  the  book 
corresponds.    It  begins  with  the  king's  forgotten  dream  in 

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LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE   EXILE 

chapter  ii,  as  elicited  and  interpreted  by  the  cooperation  of 
Daniel  with  the  God  who  sent  it ;  which  dream  indeed,  as 
already  remarked,  strikes  the  keynote  of  the  book's  mes- 
sage. The  dream,  under  the  figure  of  a  great  image,  is  of 
a  succession  of  worldly  kingdoms,  of  which  Nebuchad- 
nezzar's is  the  head ;  all  members  of  one  great  body  of 
empire,  a  thing  material,  metallic,  soulless,  which  being 
supported  only  by  its  basest  elements  iron  and  clay  —  the 
latter  having  no  mingling  affinity  with  the  human  (ii,  43)  — 
is  doomed,  precious  and  baser  metals  together,  to  be  broken 
in  pieces  by  a  self-moved  stone,  cut  out  of  the  mountain 
without  hands,  which  thereafter  grows  to  a  great  mountain, 
or  rock,  filling  the  earth.  Thus  is  revealed  to  the  ambitious 
king  the  type  of  empire  of  which  he  is  the  head,  splendid 
but  fatally  weak ;  and  over  against  it  is  portrayed,  in  like 
material  terms,  the  rock-founded  kingdom  that  is  destined 
to  prevail.  "  And  in  the  days  of  those  kings,"  runs  the 
literal  exposition,  "  shall  the  God  of  heaven  set  up  a  king- 
dom which  shall  never  be  destroyed,  nor  shall  the  sover- 
eignty thereof  be  left  to  another  people,  but  it  shall  break 
in  pieces  and  consume  all  these  kingdoms,  •  and  it  shall 
stand  for  ever"  (ii,  44).  This  prophecy  makes  connection 
with  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  familiar  Hebrew  concep- 
tions of  God  and  His  meaning  for  men.  From  old  time 
He  is  figured  as  a  Rock,  with  its  connotations  of  refuge, 
stronghold,  reliability  (cf.  Deut.  xxxii,  4 ;  2  Sam.  xxii,  2,  3  ; 
Isa.  xxviii,  16).  Here  the  Rock  is  endowed  with  energy 
and  growth,  and  fitted  into  the  king's  dream  of  material 
empire,  as  if  from  a  thing  inorganic  it  had  become  alive. 

Note.  From  this  dream  of  King  Nebuchadnezzar,  which  he  had 
early  in  his  reign,  the  whole  prophetic  vein  of  the  Book  of  Daniel  seems 
to  have  been  developed ;  the  dream  of  Daniel  himself  in  chapter  vii, 
striking  into  the  same  theme  of  the  four  great  monarchies,  follows  it 
out  with  change  of  imagery  but  with  corresponding  denouement,  and 
the  later  revelations,  viii  to  xii,  concentrate  an  element  of  it  upon  a 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

crisis  of  history.  It  is  to  the  interpretation  of  the  king's  dream  and  to 
the  distinction  that  followed,  it  would  seem,  that  Ezekiel  alludes  in  his 
taunt  addressed  to  the  conceited  prince  of  Tyre  (Ezek.  xxviii,  3). 

The  second  dream  of  King  Nebuchadnezzar  (iv),  being 
personal  to  the  king  himself,  has  little  connection,  unless 
by  contrast,  with  the  Hebrew  strain  of  prophecy  ;  it  shows 
however  with  remarkable  clearness  how  rudimentary  must 
be  the  spiritual  impulsions  that  could  be  planted  in  his 
self-regarding  egotism,  and  how  heroic  must  be  the  treat- 
ment that  could  avail  to'  clinch  them.  Its  mixed  imagery 
is  a  step  upward  from  that  of  the  first  dream.  From  con- 
ceptions of  inorganic  nature  it  has  reached  the  stratum  of 
plant  and  sentient  life,  and  this  is  relatively  noble.  At  first 
merely  a  "  head  of  gold  "  {ii,  38),  in  his  dream  he  is  now 
a  lofty  and  conspicuous  tree,  with  its  connotations  of  shade 
and  fruit  and  shelter ;  but  still  his  roots  are  with  the  beasts 
whose  food  is  the  grass  of  the  field.  His  spiritual  tenden- 
cies are  not  upward  but  downward  toward  the  brute.  To 
the  brute  he  must  accordingly  revert  for  a  season,  in  a 
terrible  but  remedial  chastisement  of  insanity,  that  he  may 
learn  to  look  upward  (iv,  34)  and  know,  for  all  his  pride, 
how  insufficient  he  is  to  himself.  In  preparing  him  for 
this,  Daniel  urges  upon  him  the  first  act  of  mercy  and 
humanity  associated  with  him.  "  Wherefore,  O  king," 
Daniel  is  bold  to  say,  "  let  my  counsel  be  acceptable  unto 
thee,  and  break  off  thy  sins  by  righteousness,  and  thine 
iniquities  by  showing  mercy  to  the  poor ;  if  there  may  be 
a  lengthening  of  thy  tranquillity  "  (iv,  27).  Such  a  lesson, 
apparently  so  new  to  the  self-willed  king,  was  no  more  than 
the  ABC  of  the  Hebrew  standard  of  life  ;  to  him  it  must 
be  enforced  by  calamity. 

Nebuchadnezzar's  first  dream  revealed  the  eventual  rise 
of  an  all-subduing  kingdom,  hard  and  ruthless  like  a  self- 
moved  rock  ;  that  was  enough  prophecy  of  future  conditions 
for  his  primitive  spiritual  plane.    After  his  death,  however, 

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LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

when  his  successor  has  taken  the  kingdom,  Daniel  has  a 
dream  of  his  own  (vii),  which,  striking  into  the  same  world 
vision  as  did  Nebuchadnezzar's,  makes  transition  thereby  to 
the  apocalyptic  revelations  of  the  later  chapters.  This  time, 
however,  by  a  change  of  imagery,  the  succession  of  king- 
doms appears  under  the  guise  of  beasts  of  prey  and  rapine, 
whose  ferocity  increases  with  each  stage  of  empire  until  their 
doom  comes.  The  first  of  these,  a  lion  with  eagle's  wings, 
takes  on,  as  already  noted, ^  some  human  amenities  (vii,  4)  — ■ 
an  allusion,  perhaps,  to  the  chastened  piety  of  Nebuchad- 
nezzar's later  life  (cf.  iv,  34-37).  There  is  no  tinge  of 
humanity  in  the  succeeding  beasts,  however ;  and  the  fourth, 
a  nondescript  beast  with  ten  horns,  is  more  strong  and  cruel 
th'an  the  others ;  and  among  the  horns  there  comes  up 
"  another  horn,  a  little  one,  .  .  .  and  behold,  in  this  horn 
were  eyes  like  the  eyes  of  a  man,  and  a  mouth  speaking 
great  things  "   (vii,   8). 

With  the  coming  up  of  this  "little  horn,"  which  from 
this  time  on  is  the  central  aversion,  the  distinctive  apoca- 
lyptic strain  of  the  book  begins  (vii,  9)  ;  it  is  as  if  it  were 
the  writer's  occasion  to  make  transition  from  legendary 
material  to  visions  more  relevant  to  his  own  time.  What 
this  time  was,  we  have  indicated.^  The  transition  opens 
with  a  vision  of  judgment.  "  I  beheld,"  Daniel  relates, 
"till  thrones  were  placed,  and  one  that  was  ancient  of  days 
did  sit :  .  .  .  the  judgment  was  set,  and  the  books  were 
opened  "  (vii,  9,  10).  What  next  follows  belongs  as  truly 
to  the  native  Hebrew  prophecy  as  to  the  later  apocalypse, 
being  indeed  merely  the  repetition  and  completion  of  the 
prediction  already  made  to  Nebuchadnezzar.  The  kingdom, 
corresponding  to  the  hard  and  unfeeling  minerals  of  earth, 
has  been  prophesied  in  austere  terms  ;  here,  in  terms  con- 
trasted with  the  figures  of  animal  ferocity,  is  prophesied  the 
king.     "  I  saw  in  the  night-visions,  and,  behold,  there  came 

^  See  above,  p.  291.  -  See  above,  p.  279. 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

with  the  clouds  of  heaven  one  hke  unto  a  son  of  man,  and 
he  came  even  to  the  ancient  of  days,  and  they  brought  him 
near  before  him.  And  there  was  given  him  dominion,  and 
glory,  and  a  kingdom,  that  all  the  peoples,  nations,  and 
languages  should  serve  him  :  his  dominion  is  an  everlasting 
dominion,  which  shall  not  pass  away,  and  his  kingdom  that 
which  shall  not  be  destroyed"  (vii,  13,  14;  cf.  ii,  44). 
Thus  the  prophecy  of  the  book  culminates  in  the  triumph 
of  humanity  over  brute  force  and  despotism.  Nothing  that 
comes  after  makes  a  revelation  beyond  this.  "'  Here,"  as 
the  writer  says,  "  is  the  end  of  the  matter  "  (vii,  28). 

Note.  This  dream  of  Daniel's  in  chapter  vii  is  dated  "  in  the  first 
year  of  Belshazzar  king  of  Babylon  "  ;  but  as  in  the  author's  incorrect 
view  Belshazzar  was  deemed  the  son  of  Nebuchadnezzar  (cf.  v,  1 8),  the 
year  after  the  first  great  monarch's  death  may  be  intended,  the  year  in 
which  King  Jehoiachin  was  released  from  prison  (cf.  2  Kings  xxv,  27). 
I  have  connected  this  dream  with  the  first  part  of  the  book,  partly  be- 
cause of  its  essential  parity  with  Nebuchadnezzar's  dream  of  chapter  ii, 
and  partly  because  in  the  original  this  chapter  continues  the  Aramaic, 
the  language  of  the  previous  chapters,  in  which  is  embodied  what  I 
deem  the  folk  source. 

Here  then  was  essential  Hebrew  prophecy  bearing  noble 
witness  at  the  capital  of  the  world,  before  a  monarch  of 
alien  religion  and  ideals,  and  in  the  idiom  of  his  own 
dreams.  We  can  feel  its  fitness  to  audience  and  occasion. 
It  would  not  have  done  here  to  speak  of  Israel's  dynastic 
hopes,  with  a  Davidic  king  at  that  moment  in  a  Babylonian 
prison ;  nor  would  this  world  conqueror  have  been  likely  to 
understand  such  a  prediction  except  in  terms  of  havoc  and 
conquest.  The  dream  of  the  coming  king  does  not  come 
until  Nebuchadnezzar  is  dead  and  Jehoiachin  is  released 
from  prison.  None  the  less,  however,  this,  the  most  dis- 
tinctively Messianic  vision  of  the  Book  of  Daniel,  is  charged 
with  the  refined  Hebrew  spirit  and  reflects  the  prophetic 
situation  of  the  time.     It  is  of  the  same  strain,  indeed,  that 

[  --;6  ] 


LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

the  Hebrew  prophets  of  this  very  exile  period  are  expressing, 
in  more  domestic  terms,  of  their  ideahzed  king,  David,  and 
his  restored  reign  (cf.  Jer.  xxiii,  5-8  ;  xxx,  9  ;  Isa.  Iv,  3,  4  ; 
Ezek.  xxxiv,  23,  24  ;  xxxvii,  24,  25  ;  Hos.  iii,  5). 

Up  to  the  end  of  chapter  vi  —  that  is,  of  tlie  narrative 
section  —  the  Book  of  Daniel  maintains  not  unaptly  the 
„,    „  .         atmosphere  and  verisimilitude   of  the  Chaldean 

The  Enigma  ^ 

of  the  Later  court  during  the  exile  period.  Then  follows  a 
Revelations  ggj-jgg  Qf  prophetic  disclosures,  four  in  all,  dated, 
after  the  manner  of  Ezekiel,^  at  various  times  from  the  first 
year  of  Belshazzar  king  of  Babylon  to  the  third  year  of 
Cyrus  king  of  Persia  (see  vii,  i  ;  viii,  i  ;  ix,  i  ;  x,  i),  and 
made  partly  through  vision  and  symbol  revealed  to  Daniel, 
partly  through  literal  interpretation  and  prediction  by  angelic 
communication.  Ever  since  their  publication  these  disclos- 
ures —  if  their  puzzling  character  will  permit  the  term  — - 
have  had  ,an  extraordinary  fascination,  owing  doubtless  to 
their  apocalyptic  vista  with  its  mystic  computations  of  times 
and  epochs,  for  a  certain  class  of  minds,  students  whose 
literary  interest  is  in  cryptic  undercurrents  of  thought  and 
emblem  and  in  vague  and  occult  outlooks.  The  chapters 
have  evoked  a  whole  species  of  apocalyptic  and  eschatological 
literature,  the  most  notable  product  being  the  New  Testa- 
ment Revelation  of  St.  John.  They  have  been  a  feeding- 
ground  for  ill-balanced  speculation  in  all  ages  and  all 
outstanding  crises  of  history  ;  even  the  present  world  war  is 
by  no  means  exempt.^  A  bafflement  to  moderns,  they  were 
doubtless  plain  enough  to  the  generation  for  whom  they 
were  written ;  their  enigmatic  character,  indeed,  comes 
largely  from  their  restriction  to  an  episode  of  history.  What 
transcends  this  Maccabean  episode  —  namely,  the  broad 
prophetic  strain  —  is  not  perplexing. 

.Let  us  consider  how  this  is,  and  what  values  remain  — 
apocalyptic  and  other. 

1  See  above,  p.  260.  2  Written  in  1916. 

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The  first  of  these  disclosures  (vii),  a  dream  of  Daniel's 
reported  in  the  Aramaic,  has  already  been  described  as  a 
kind  of  transition,  repeating  under  the  figure  of  beasts  the 
theme  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  initial  dream  of  the  four  doomed 
monarchies  (ii),  and  culminating  it  in  the  victorious  coming 
of  "  one  like  unto  a  son  of  man,"  whose  kingdom  would  be 
universal  and  eternal  (vii,  13,  14).  This  event,  the  most  far- 
reaching  revelation  of  the  book,  coincides  with  a  sublirrie 
world  judgment  on  the  fiercest  and  loudest  of  the  beasts 
(vii,  9-12);  after  which  "the  kingdom  and  the  dominion, 
and  the  greatness  of  the  kingdoms  under  the  whole  heaven, 
shall  be  given  to  the  people  of  the  saints  of  the  Most  High  " 
(vii,  27).  Here  would  seem  to  be  a  more  scenic  portrayal 
of  the  vision  that  Joel  saw  so  many  years  before  (Joel  iii, 
12-17),  i^ow  magnified  from  the  Jewish  to  the  world  scale. 
It  is  of  this  outcome  that  the  author,  rounding  off  the 
Aramaic  portion  of  the  text,  says,  "  Here  is  the  end  of 
the  matter." 

The  end  indeed  ;  but  this  presage,  as  indeed  apocalyptic 
premonition  in  general,  is  a  foreshortened  prophecy.  It 
deals  in  comprehensive  terms  with  a 

far-off  divine  event, 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves, 

without  heeding  the  intermediate  steps  and  stages  that  must 
be  surmounted  on  the  way  to  it,  or  the  checks  and  evils 
that  make  against  it.  And  to  the  author  of  Daniel,  fallen 
on  grievous  days,  these  latter  are  so  stern  and  formidable 
that  they  obscure  the  view  of  the  end  and  endanger  his 
people's  faith.  In  other  words,  a  sharp  crisis  has  come 
upon  the  time,  which  seems  to  block  all  progress  toward 
the  divine  advent ;  a  crisis  which  his  nation  must  if  pos- 
sible be  strengthened  to  withstand  and  weather.  What  this 
is,  the  increasing  definiteness  of  the  disclosures  from  viii 
to  xi,  and  especially  the  minute  detail  of  the  latter  chapter, 

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LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

enables  us  to  determine.  It  is  the  presumptuous  and 
fanatical  attempt  of  King  Antiochus  IV  (Epiphanes)  in  his 
reign  (175-164  b.c.)  to  extirpate  the  Jewish  religion  and 
enforce  Hellenic  culture,  —  an  attempt  which  was  carried 
to  such  lengths  as  to  abolish  the  Temple  service  of  sacrifice 
and  set  up  a  heathen  altar  in  the  sanctuary  ("  the  abomina- 
tion that  maketh  desolate,"  xi,  31). 

This  predicted  crisis  is  represented  as  revealed  to 
Daniel  in  Babylon  and  Susa  by  visions  and  angelic  com- 
munications. The  series  of  disclosures  that  lead  up  to  it 
(viii  to  xii),  taking  its  objective  from  the  "little  horn"  of 
Daniel's  dream  (vii,.8),  identifies  this  grotesque  object  in 
succeeding  descriptions  as  "a  king  of  fierce  countenance, 
and  understanding  dark  sentences"  (viii,  23),  and  in  the 
more  circumstantial  account  of  his  career  (xi)  as  "  the  king 
of  the  north,"  that  is,  of  Syria.  Through  the  intervening 
period  from  Daniel  to  this  king  the  revelations  are  made 
in  trance  imagery,  in  which  the  successive  kingdoms  are 
still  represented  by  beasts  (cf.  viii,  19-22),  Following  on 
this,  and  given  in  answer  to  prayer,  is  a  computation  of 
the  time  that  shall  elapse  from  Daniel  to  the  profanation 
of  the  Temple  (ix,  24-27);  which  computation  ("seventy 
weeks,"  that  is,  perhaps  of  years  =  490  years)  takes  as  a 
kind  of  suggestive  unit  the  seventy  years  prophesied  by 
Jeremiah  as  the  duration  of  the  captivity  (ix,  2  ;  cf.  Jer.  xxv, 
II,  12;  xxix,  10)  and  extends  its  meaning.  This  compu- 
tation, which,  as  Professor  Driver  says,  "  admits  of  no  ex- 
planation, consistent  with  history,  whatever,"  constitutes, 
perhaps  more  than  anything  else,  the  enigma  of  these 
later  revelations,  and  has  accordingly  given  rise  to  endless 
amounts  of  assumption  and  guessing.^     In  the  rest  of  the 

1  "  Probably  no  passage  of  the  Old  Testament  has  been  the  subject  of 
so  much  discussion,  or  has  given  rise  to  so  many  and  such  varied  inter- 
pretations, as  this." — Driver,  "The  ISook  of  Daniel:  with  Introduction 
and  Notes,"  p.  143 

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GUIDEBOOK  lO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

book,  chapters  x  to  xii,  symbolism  is  discontinued,  and  the 
cryptic  and  mystic  language  suitable  to  history  in  the  guise 
of  prediction  takes  its  place.  This  literal  portion  follows 
history  more  circumstantially  than  any  other  part  of  the 
book,  until  the  events  of  about  i66  b.c,  after  which,  instead 
of  giving  to  the  victories  of  Judas  Maccabeus  the  credit 
they  deserve  (cf.  xi,  34),  its  predictions  of  Antiochus's  later 
career  and  death  are  vaguer  and  less  verifiable.  This  fact' 
seems  significant  for  the  time  when  the  Book  of  Daniel 
was  composed. 

The  period  of  affliction  culminates  and  passes,  however, 
and  the  foreshortened  prophecy  of  the  end,  which  was 
broached  as  a  judgment  and  a  kingdom  (vii,  9-14),  is 
resumed  and  completed  in  terms  of  personal  deliverance 
and  resurrection  and  blessedness  (xii,  1-3).  Daniel  himself, 
the  old-time  worthy  from  whose  day  the  legends  and  premo- 
nitions have  come,  does  not  fully  understand  the  meaning 
of  his  own  visions  (xii,  4,  9) ;  "  but  they  that  are  wise 
shall   understand "   (xii,    10). 

Our  examination  of  the  Book  of  Daniel  has  carried  us 
far  beyond  the  period  of  the  Chaldean  exile,  into  an  en- 
tirely new  range  and  atmosphere  of  the  Biblical  literature. 
We  must  return  now  to  take  up  other  works  of  that  earlier 
age  tracing  to  contemporaries  of  the  Daniel  of  history. 


Ill 

Second  Isaiah  :  Finisher  of  the  Vision.  No  attentive 
reader  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah  can  pass  from  the  thirty-ninth 
chapter  —  or  even  the  thirty-fifth  where  the  prophetic  strain 
is  interrupted  by  four  chapters  of  narrative  —  to  the  fortieth, 
without  being  at  once  aware  of  an  entire  change  of  scene 
and  tone.  It  is  like  suddenly  emerging  from  suspense  and 
dimness  into  a  larger  and  brighter  world.    The  scene,  which 


LITERARY   FRUITS   OF  THE   EXILE 

hitherto  has  been  localized  to  one  land's  affairs,  has  become 
as  wide  as  heaven  ;  and  in  the  sight  of  God,  Who  sits 
throned  above  the  circle  of  the  earth,  all  the  nations  are 
pictured  as  nothing  and  the  inhabitants  as  grasshoppers 
(xl,  17,  22).  The  time,  though  not  specified,  is  certainly  not 
that  of  Isaiah  the  son  of  Amoz.  It  reveals  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent set  of  conditions.  There  is  no  trace  of  such  struggle 
with  Assyrian  peril  or  diplomatic  fatuity  or  debasing"  social 
tendencies  as  plagued  that  prophet  all  his  life.  The  tone  of 
discourse  has  changed  from  austere  warning  and  censure  to 
a  fervid  strain  of  encouragement  and  hope,  which  for  the 
most  part  continues  through  the  rest  of  the  book.  This 
whole  fortieth  chapter  reads  like  the  introduction  to  a  new 
book  of  prophecy.  Its  opening  words,  "  Comfort  ye,  com- 
fort ye  my  people,  saith  your  God,"  strike  the  keynote. 
"'  Speak  ye  comfortably  to  Jerusalem  ;  and  cry  unto  her, 
that  her  warfare  is  accomplished,  that  her  iniquity  is  par- 
doned, that  she  hath  received  of  Jehovah's  hand  double 
for  all  her  sins"  (xl,  i,  2). 

It  is  on  account  of  this  remarkable  transition  in  chap- 
ters xl  to  Ixvi  that  modern  scholars  have  deemed  them  the 
work  of  a  later  author,  unnamed,  whose  prophecy  has  become 
united  with  that  of  the  great  prophet  of  Hezekiah's  time, 
and  whom  accordingly  they  distinguish  as  the  Second 
Isaiah,  or  Deutero-Isaiah.^  This  verdict  of  scholarship, 
assigning  the  Book  of  Isaiah  to  at  least  two  prophets,^ 
opens  the  question  of  their  relation  to  each  other;  to  which 
question  a  variety  of  answers  has  been  given,  according  to  the 
critics'  sense  of  their  vital  or  merely  mechanical  connection. 
I  have  already  recorded  my  view  that  "the  Second  Isaiah 
...  is  an  organic  sequel  and  supplement  to  the  First,"  and 
that  accordingly  "the  two  parts,  while  set  in  a  different  scene 

*  As  already  noted,  p.  167. 

^  A  third,  or  Trito-Isaiah,  has  by  some  critics  been  assumed  for  chap- 
ters Ivi-lxvi ;  the  warrant  for  this,  however,  does  not  seem  to  me  sufficient. 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

and  subtending  two  widely  sundered  epochs  of  time,  are  in 
reality  one  book,  with  one  homogeneous  scheme  of  thought, 
and  with  a  clear  coordination  and  consecution  of  elements."  ^ 

NoTK.  The  consideration  of  the  First  Isaiah  in  connection  with  the 
events  of  his  time  has  necessitated  a  division  in  our  study  of  the  book ; 
and  this  has  been  in  some  ways  a  disadvantage,  as  it  has  tended  to 
impair  the  sense  of  its  unitary  trend.  The  reader  should  here  review 
the  sections  on  "Isaiah  of  Jerusalem,"  pp.  167-178,  on  "The  Crisis 
Met  and  Weathered,"  pp.  i  79-185,  and  on  "  Isaiah's  Vision  of  Destiny," 
pp.  189-194.  Attention  is  called  also  (p.  192)  to  the  condensed  scheme 
of  the  book,  with  its  suggested  five  divisions,  or  "  acts,"  of  which  three 
have  been  considered.    The  parts  yet  to  come  before  us  are : 

Intermezzo  and  Shift  of  Scene,  xl 

Act  IV.    The  second  onset:  the  Chaldean  experience,  xli-lv. 
Act  V.    Clearing  the  way  for  a  new  universe,  Ivi-lxvi. 

As  noted  above,^  the  Book  of  Isaiah,  by  a  title  which 
doubtless  was  given  late,  is  called  "The  Vision  of  Isaiah 
™,  the  Son  of  Amoz."  A  vision  —  but  one  of  unique 

Second  character ;    not   like   the    mystic   second-sight   of 

Isaiah  p;^zekiel    or    the    fantastic    dreams    of    the    Book 

of  Daniel.  It  is  lucid  and  literal.  Except  for  the  initial 
experience  of  the  touching  of  the  prophet's  lips  (vi,  7),  it 
contains  no  hint  of  trance  or  occult  illumination.  Rather 
it  is  like  the  rational  insight  of  a  statesman  and  sage,  who 
has  an  intuitive  sense  of  spiritual  forces  and  tendencies 
both  in  his  nation  and  in  the  world  at  large,  who  thinks 
deeply  and  feels  intensely,  and  whose  faith  in  the  divine 
will  and  word  is  absolute.  In  a  word,  it  is  the  vision  which 
comes  of  sound  spiritual  illumination. 

Of  this  vision  we  have  already  considered,  as  compared 
with  the  presage  of  other  prophets,  its  broadened  horizon 
and  its  higher  plane  ^  —  qualities  which  belong  equally  to 
all  parts  of  the  book,  giving  it  unity  of  tissue.     It  remains 

1  See  above,  pp.  167,  168.  2  See  above,  pp.  168,  189. 

^  See  above,  pp.  i()0,  19J. 

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LITERARY  FRUITS   OF  THE   EXILE 

to  nuLe  the  large  tract  of  time  over  which  its  compass 
extends.  It  covers  virtually  the  whole  range  of  Israel's 
prophetic  movement,  from  the  early  menace  of  disaster  and 
captivity  before  the  fall  of  the  northern  kingdom  to  the 
opening  era  of  adjustment  and  settledness  after  the  return 
from  Chaldean  exile  —  a  span  of  two  centuries.^  Thus  the 
meaning  of  the  whole  field  of  literary  prophecy  lies,  as  it 
were,  mapped  out  before  us. 

A  vision  has  a  point  or  points  of  view,  as  well  in  current 
movements  and  conditions  as  in  space  and  time.  This  is 
what  necessitates  the  assumption  of  a  Second  Isaiah.  There 
are  two  widely  separated  epochs  of  history,  focal  points  we 
may  call  them,  from  which  the  book's  vision  opens  out. 
These  are  the  epochs  connected  with  the  greatest  achieve- 
ments of  two  world  conquerors,  Sennacherib  and  Cyrus, 
and  with  the  relation  of  Israel  to  the  two  great  empires 
of  Assyria  and  Babylonia,  as  these  were  at  the  proudest 
stage  of  their  history. 

When  the  career  of  Isaiah  the  son  of  Amoz  ended,  the 
vision,  though  nobly  begun,  was  only  half  told.  Its  stage 
of  stress  and  dimness  ended  with  the  miraculous  rescue  of 
Jerusalem  from  the  Assyrian  peril  (701  b,c.).^  This  event, 
however,  far  from  being  a  finality,  was  only  the  occasion 
of  a  new  birth  —  the  birth,  effected  not  without  uncertain 
travail,  of  that  vital  and  redeeming  faith  for  which  the 
prophet  had  labored  (cf.  xxvi,  17,  18  ;  xxxvii,  3  ;  Ixvi,  7-9). 
The  spiritual  awakening  thus  symbolized  was  the  earnest, 
the  guaranty,  of  the  redemption  to  come.  And  here  the 
First  Isaiah,  whose  fervid  utterances  are  the  soul  of  the 
vision,  had  to  lay  down  his  work. 

For  the  second  stage  of  the  vision,  therefore,  its  stage 
of  triumph  and  completion,  modern  criticism  recognizes  a 
prophet  otherwise  unknown  who,  living  near  the  close  of 

1  For  an  outline  of  this  period  see  above,  pp.  133-137- 

2  See  above,  pp.  184,  1 85. 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

the  Chaldean  exile,  supplemented  the  earlier  work,  writing 
just  as  Cyrus  the  Persian  was  well  embarked  on  the  career 
of  conquest  in  which  he  became  master  of  Babylon  and 
released  the  Jewish  captives  to  their  ancestral  home.  The 
occasion  was  ripe.  The  people,  purified  by  their  ordeal  of 
captivity  and  suffering,  were  at  last  ready  to  be  called  from 
their  long  sequestration  and  girded  for  their  unique  mission 
(cf.  xl,  27-31).  Great  events  were  casting  their  shadows 
before  —  signs  of  terror  to  the  nations,  of  promise  and 
opportunity  to  the  people  of  Jehovah.  So  this  prophet, 
called  for  distinction  the  Second  Isaiah,  by  a  masterful  inter- 
pretation of  these  momentous  signs  and  of  the  agencies  by 
which  Jehovah's  great  purpose  was  to  be  wrought,  finished 
the  vision  begun  so  long  before. 

Of  the  period  of  spiritual  childhood  and  youth  which 
succeeded  to  the  new  birth  in  Israel  —  in  other  words,  the 
_    ^.    .^        educative   century   that    intervened    between   the 

Continuity  -' 

with  the  campaigns  of  Sennacherib  and  Nebuchadnezzar 
First  Isaiah  —  ^^^^  Second  Isaiah  had  no  occasion  to  write. 
He  could  take  the  meaning  of  it  for  granted,  being  con- 
cerned rather  with  the  future  that  was  opening  so  brightly 
before  the  now  adult  and  redeemed  Israel.  This  accounts 
for  the  gap  of  a  century  and  a  half  that  is  to  be  understood 
between  the  thirty-ninth  and  the  fortieth  chapters  and  for 
the  abrupt  change  in  scene  and  situation  of  the  chapters 
succeeding.  It  is  as  if  the  later  writer  could  ignore  the 
annals  of  this  period,  as  well  known,  or  as  not  belonging 
to  his  dramatic  purpose. 

Note.  This  gap  is  bridged  by  the  history  and  literature  that  we 
have  from  other  sources.  It  is  the  literary  product  of  this  intercalary 
period  that  we  have  considered,  with  glances  at  its  historic  setting,  in 
Chapter  V  ("  After  the  Reprieve  ")  and,  for  the  early  years  of  the  exile, 
in  our  study  of  the  Book  of  Ezekid.  The  conditions  recognized  in  the 
Book  of  Daniel  were  for  the  most  part  those  of  the  reign  of-  King 
Nebuchadnezzar,  which  ended  a  little  more  than  a  decade  before  the 
Second  Isaiah  began  his  message. 

[30-1] 


LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

When  as  supplementer  he  set  himself  to  complete  the 
prophetic  vision  his  work  was,  in  the  historic  sense,  the 
sequel  of  the  whole  body  of  pre-exilic  prophecy,  which  as 
we  have  seen  was  considerable.  As  a  literary  product,  how- 
ever, it  is  only  with  the  First  Isaiah  that  his  work  may  be 
regarded  as  continuous  ;  and  indeed  its  continuity  therewith, 
as  seems  to  me,  is  very  marked  and  palpable.  It  is  the 
continuity  of  fitting  a  time  of  solution  to  a  time  of  waiting 
and  stress.  It  moves  in  the  atmosphere  of  light  and  reali- 
zation, as  the  earlier  prophecy  moved  through  dimness  and 
difficulty.  To  set  forth  this  contrasted  situation,  however, 
it  employs  the  same  scheme  of  ideas  and  imagery,  traverses 
as  it  were  the  same  spiritual  table-land,  as  did  the  earlier 
utterance.  Like  the  First  Isaiah,  the  Second  adopts  as 
the  distinctive  title  of  Jehovah,  "the  Holy  One  of  Israel." 
Like  him  he  too  is  dealing  not  so  much  with  the  nation  at 
large,  with  its  political  and  worldly  interests,  as  with  the 
inner  and  vital  nucleus,  that  nobler  heart  of  Israel  recog- 
nized in  prophetic  idiom  as  "  Zion,"  or  "the  daughter  of 
Zion."  ^  His  opening  call  to  his  messenger  is,  "  O  thou 
that  tellest  good  tidings  to  Zion  "  (xl,  9  ;  cf.  xli,  27).  At 
the  outset  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah  the  daughter  of  Zion  (quite 
distinct  from  the  "daughters  of  Zion,"  iii,  16,  17;  iv,  4) 
was  figured  as  lonely  and  forlorn  in  a  land  given  over  to 
ravage  and  ruin  (i,  8),  whose  citadel  was  threatened  by  a 
ruthless  invader  (x,  32  ;  cf.  for  a  later  invader,  Jer.  vi,  23)  ; 
as  a  marriageable  maiden,  however,  whose  destiny  it  was 
to  bring  forth  the  Immanuel  child  who  would  be  mighty 
against  the  material  and  destructive  forces  of  the  world  - 
(vii,  14  ;  viii,  9,  10).  In  the  latter  part  of  the  book,  though 
captive,  she  is  addressed  as  ready  to  shake  off  her  bonds 
and    reign    (Iii,   i,  2),    to    receive    the    reward    of    salvation 

1  Cf.  above,  pp.  163,   175.    These  designations,  especially  the  first,  are 
virtually  peculiar  to  the  two  Isaiahs,  occurring  but  sparingly  elsewhere. 
-  See  above,  p.  17G. 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERAIURE 

(Ixii,    II,  12),   and   under  a  new  name   to   be   remarried   to 
her  land  (Ixii,  1-5  ;  cf.  liv,  5,6). 

We  have  seen  with  what  symboHc  undertone  of  imagery 
this  nucleal  germ  of  Israel's  character,  this  redeeming 
element,  is  traced  by  the  First  Isaiah  from  a  predicted 
and  announced  birth  (vii,  14  ;  ix,  6,  7)  through  a  predicted 
Messianic  youth  (xi,  1-5)  to  an  eventual  Messianic  realm 
(xxxii,  1-8},  wherein  king,  princes,  and  subjects  shall  be 
at  one  in  a  mutual  and  self-directive  government.^  It  is  a 
development  which,  permeating  like  leaven  from  heart  to 
heart,  must  take  time  and  searching  discipline  to  ripen  from 
the  individual  to  the  national  scale  ;  and  Isaiah  the  son  of 
Amoz  had  to  lay  down  his  vision  with  the  general  spiritual 
quickening  only  just  begun.'^  It  is  at  this  point  that  the 
curtain  falls  between  the  two  parts  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah. 
What  stage  of  realization  this  Messianic  development  has 
reached  by  the  time  of  the  Second  Isaiah  will  come  up  for 
later  consideration.  In  its  more  literal  and  present  relation 
this  nucleal  redeeming  power  in  Israel  was  lodged  by  the 
First  Isaiah  with  a  remnant,  very  small  and  feeble  in  the 
midst  of  rank  wickedness  (i,  9),  an  element  whose  survival 
and  prosperity  were  put  in  a  term  of  double  meaning,  — 
as  an  eventual  return  from  captivity,  as  also  a  spiritual 
conversion  from  virtual  heathenism  to  a  living  faith  in 
Jehovah  (cf.  i,  26,  27).  Isaiah's  whole  prophetic  conviction, 
symbolized  in  the  name  he  gave  to  his  eldest  son,  was 
committed  to  the  proposition,  "'  A  remnant  shall  return  " 
(Shear-jashub,  vii,  3)  ;  and  the  redemption  itself  is  put  in 
terms  of  justice  and  righteousness  (i,  27)  vitalized  into 
faith  (xxviii,  16,  17).  In  the  Second  Isaiah  this  element 
has  ceased,  except  by  retrospect,  to  figure  as  a  remnant 
(cf.  xlvi,  3),  because  in  fact  the  ruling  sentiment,  enlightened 
and  seasoned  by  discipline,  so  coincides  with  that  formerly 
attributed  to  the  remnant  that  they  may  be  addressed  in  its 
1  See  above,  pp.  177,  178.  -  See  above,  pp.  183,  184. 

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LITERARY  FRUITS   OF  THE   EXILE 

terms  as  a  whole ;  while  redemption,  now  that  Zion's 
"warfare  is  accomplished"  (xl,  2),  is  announced  and 
reiterated  as  an  accomplished  fact  (xliii,  i  ;  xliv,  22,  23  ; 
xlviii,  20). 

One  more  feature  of  continuity  may  be  noted.  The 
First  Isaiah's  most  discouraging  experience,  from  the 
moment  of  his  call,  was  with  a  people  spiritually  torpid  ; 
his  hardest  literary  task,  calling  forth  his  greatest  gifts  of 
expression,  to  create  in  materialized  minds  a  response 
of  spiritual  discernment  and  wakefulness.  He  put  this  in 
terms  of  seeing  and  hearing  and  intelligent  attention  (vi,  9, 
10;  xxix,  9-12),  and  the  condition  he  met  was  touched 
upon  as  late  as  the  time  of  Ezekiel  (Ezek.  xii,  2).  In  the 
Second  Isaiah  the  people  are  no  longer  torpid  ;  they  are 
ready  to  come  forth  from  their  spiritual  bondage  (cf.  xlii,  22), 
and  the  prophet  can  say  to  them,  "Hear  ye  deaf;  and 
look,  ye  blind,  that  ye  may  see  "  (xlii,  18)  ;  "  Bring  forth  the  y 
blind  people  that  have  eyes,  and  the  deaf  that  have  ears  " 
(xliii,  8).  They  have  reached  the  point  where  their  spiritual 
intuitions  may  be  appealed  to  as  awake  and  alert.  "  Who 
is  there  among  you,"  inquires  the  prophet,  "that  will  give 
ear  to  this  .''  that  will  hearken  and  hear  for  the  time  to 
come.?"  (xlii,  23.)  It  was  "the  time  to  come,"  with  its 
duties  and  destinies,  that  was  now  at  stake  ;  and  for  the 
first  time  in  the  essentially  continuous  Vision  it  looked  as 
if,  in  preparation  for  this,  the  predictions  uttered  in  xxix, 
18,  and  XXXV,  5,  were  ready  to  come  true. 

Other  such  tokens  of  continuity  might  be  noted  ;  these 
are  sufficient  to  show  how  truly  the  two  parts  of  the  Book 
of  Isaiah  answer  to  each  other. 

It  will  contribute  much  to  our  appreciation  of  the  Second 
Isaiah  if  we  realize  what  was  the  prophet's  mood,  how  he 
felt  about  his  message  and  its  tremendous  meanings.  To 
an  extraordinary  degree,  as  we  cannot  but  note,  his  utter- 
ance is  charged  with  feeling  ;   moves,  so  to  say,  under  high 

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emotional  pressure.  The  most  salient  quality  of  all,  perhaps, 
is  enthusiasm,  exultation,  like  the  enthusiasm  of  a  great 
The  discovery.     Some  event  has  occurred,  some  situ- 

Prophet's  ation  opened,  some  light  dawned  on  the  mystery 
Impulse  to  of  God's  vviU  and  purpose,  which  all  at  once  has 
Expression  cleared  the  air  and  raised  a  veritable  tumult  of 
lively  realization  in  the  prophet's  mind.  The  sense  of  this, 
with  his  immediate  impulse  to  announce  and  explain,  gives 
a  kind  of  headlong  quality  to  his  utterance,  as  if  he  could 
not  stay  to  reduce  it  to  calm  logical  sequence  but  must 
respond  to  the  successive  surges  of  vision  and  wonder  as 
they  rise.  The  plan,  accordingly,  is  hard  to  analyze  to 
ordered  sequence ;  it  is,  however,  all  the  more  luminous 
to  those  who  share  in  his  emotion  and  its  grounds. 

Mingled  with  this  dominant  strain  of  enthusiasm  are 
other  emotional  elements,  very  natural  and  human,  which 
serve  to  bring  the  prophet's  personality  nearer  to  us.  In 
the  prevalent  confusion  and  dismay  which  impending  events 
are  beginning  to  cause,  he  does  not  repress  a  certain 
natural  pride  of  superior  insight,  which  leads  him  to  chal- 
lenge the  like  in  all  comers  (xli,  i,  21-24)  and  to  exult  in 
being  the  first  bearer  of  good  tidings  (xli,  26,  27  ;  xlviii, 
3-8).  The  reverse  of  this  mood,  too,  is  equally  to  be 
noted :  a  caustic  disdain,  not  to  say  contempt,  for  the 
spiritual  densitv  of  the  splendid  heathenism  around  him 
(xli,  28,  29  ;  xliv,  9-1 1  ;  xlv,  20),  which  disdain  vents  itself 
in  biting  satire  on  images  and  image-making  (xl,  18-20; 
xliv,  12-20)  and  on  the  elaborate  inanities  of  Chaldean 
divination  (xlvii,  12-15),  Withal,  when  a  Certain  object 
which  we  shall  later  note  calls  forth  his  compassion  and 
sympathy,  he  is  not  untouched  by  a  poignant  sense  of 
compunction  and  tender  regret  (cf.  xlii,  19,  20;  lii,  14; 
liii,  3,  6).  All  these  emotional  moods,  however,  are  but 
varied  pulsations  in  his  well-nigh  overwhelming  sense  of 
tlie  vastness  and  depth  of  his  prophetic  theme.     He  feels 

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LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE   EXILE 

himself  the  spokesman  of  "the  everlasting  God,  Jehovah,  the 
Creator  of  the  ends  of  the  earth"  (xl,  28  ;  cf.  xlii,  5  ;  xlv,  18), 
who  sits  throned  above  the  puny  race  of  man  (xl,  21-23), 
and  whose  word,  once  spoken,  shall  stand  forever  (xl,  8). 
He  hears  the  call  to  open  a  way  for  Jehovah  through  the 
wastes  of  humanity,  not  only  to  Israel's  deliverance  from 
captivity  (that  as  a  kind  of  by-product,  xlv,  13)  but  to  the 
uplift  of  civilization  (xlv,  i-/),  to  a  universal  regime  of 
salvation  (xlix,  6  ;  xlv,  22,  23),  and  so  on  and  on,  to  the 
finished  consummation  of  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth 
(Ixv,  17).  So  great  a  theme  has  not  been  sung  before. 
The  data  for  it  have  been  gathering  head,  but  conditions 
were  not  ready  until  now.  It  detaches  itself  from  the  pro- 
vincial affairs  of  a  single  people  or  a  temporary  crisis.  It 
does  not  localize  itself  clearly  to  place,  whether  Chaldea  or 
Jerusalem,  nor  does  it  set  times  and  seasons.  It  is  in  fact 
the  sublime  culmination  of  Old  Testament  prophecy.  What 
comes  after  in  this  strain  is  only  prophecy's  gradual  subsi- 
dence. And  it  is  the  prophet's  impassioned  impulse  to  set 
his  message  forth  as  good  news,  "good  tidings  to  Zion," 
that  has  earned  for  him  the  title  generally  accorded  to 
him,  of  "the  evangelical  prophet." 

Note.  The  phrase  "  to  bring  good  tidings.'"  which  is  the  keynote  of 
the  Second  Isaiah  (see  xl,  9  ;  xli,  27 ;  Hi,  7  ;  Ixi,  i),  is  translated  in  Greek 
by  evayyeXLa-aadai,  which  is  the  origin  of  our  word  "  to  evangeHze.'' 
The  term  was  adopted  from  Second  Isaiah  by  the  New  Testament 
writers  and  applied  to  the  proclamation  of  the  things  of  Christ  (cf.  Luke 
i,  ig;  ii,  10;  viii,  i  ;  Rom.  x,  15).  The  noun  emyycAiov,  "evangel,"  is 
in  very  frequent  New  Testament  usage  to  designate  the  tidings  of 
Christ;  and  the  English  translation  Gospel — "good  spell,"  or  "good 
news  "  —  is  its  exact  equivalent.  It  is  thus  the  Second  Isaiah  (though  he 
may  have  adopted  it  from  the  earlier  prophet  Nahum,  Nah.  i,  15)  who 
originates  the  term  for  the  distinctive  New  Testament  body  of  truth. 

What  is  it  that  has  called  forth  this  enthusiasm,  this 
lively  sense  of  pardon  and  fulfillment,  on  the  prophet's  part .? 
The   impassioned   surge   of    his   announcement   blends   the 

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details  of  his  good  news  together,  but. a  Httle  straight  atten- 
tion resolves  his  discourse  into  three  main  lines  of  theme. 

First,  to  them  "that  wait  for  Jehovah"   (cf.  xl,  31),  he 

announces  and  explains  the  approach  of  the  liberator.    This 

announcement  follows  immediately  after  the  for- 

I.  The  ■' 

Liberator  ticth  chapter,  in  which,  as  we  have  noted,  he 
on  his  v/ay  lyj^j^gg  ^j^  change  of  scene  and  introduces,  as  it 
were,  his  dramatis  oersonae.  He  calls  the  outlying  lands 
(of  course  it  is  Jehovah  who  speaks)  to  a  solemn  conference 
(xli,  1),  to  tell  them  what  is  taking  place  by  Jehovah's  ex- 
press purpose  and  aopointment.  "Who  hath  raised  up  one 
from  the  east,"  he  exclaims,  "  whom  He  calleth  in  righteous- 
ness to  his  foot  ?  .  .  .  I,  Jehovah,  the  first,  and  with  the 
last,  I  am  he  "  (xli.  2.4).  This  personage,  not  named  until 
the  third  mention  of  him,  is  first  described  as  a  resistless 
conqueror  (xli,  2,  3),  then  as  one  "  that  calleth  upon  my 
name"  (xli,  25),  and  finally,  after  his  name  is  given,  as 
Jehovah's  "shepherd"  (xliv,  28),  "anointed"  (.xlv,  i),  and 
"he  whom  Jehovah  loveth  "  (xlviii,  14).  He  is  one  of  the 
acknowledged  great  ones  of  antiquity,  Cyrus,  conqueror  of 
Babylon  and  founder  of  the  Medo-Persian  empire ;  whose 
mission  it  is,  in  the  large,  to  introduce  a  more  liberal  order 
of  things  (cf.  xlv,  i-7)  and,  as  related  to  Israel,  to  release 
the  exiles  to  their  nomes  and  decree  the  rebuilding  of  Jeru- 
salem (xliv,  28;  xlv.  13),  With  his  approach,  so  ordained 
and  facilitated  by  Tehovah,  the  prophet  has  the  sense  of  a 
world-wide  divine  event.  He  has  heard  "the  voice  of  one 
that  crieth,  '  Prepare  ve  in  the  wilderness  the  way  of  Jeho- 
vah '  "  (xl,  3-5), — ^-  wilderness  far  vaster  than  the  Syrian 
desert  through  which  the  captives  are  to  return  (cf.  xliii, 
19-21),  the  straightened  and  leveled  way  of  which  is  for 
Cyrus  as  well  as  for  Israel  (xlv,  2,  13  ;  xlviii,  15).  In  other 
words,  the  prophet's  presage  is  of  a  better  civilization  as 
well  as  of  a  holier  religion,  of  a  freer  access  for  all  the 
world  to  the  truth  and  health  of  life  (xlv,  22,  23). 

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LITERARY   FRUITS   OF  THE   EXILE 

Note.  With  the  coming  of  C)rus,  who  was  of  Aryan  race,  to  world 
dominion,  the  helm  of  empire  passed  from  Semitic  hands  to  Aryan, 
and  in  subsequent  dynasties,  through  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  was  per- 
petuated in  the  same  race.  For  a  comparison  of  the  Aryan  genius  for 
mental  and  political  achievements  with  the  Semitic  genius  for  moral 
and  spiritual  ideas,  see  the  remarks  quoted  from  Professor  McCurdy, 
page  35,  note. 

The  prophet's  description  of  Cyrus's  mission  was  doubt- 
less made  comparatixely  early  in  the  latter's  career  of  con- 
quest, some  time  before  he  drew  near  to  Babylon.  As  the 
conqueror  advances  on  his  way  the  prophet  draws  a  realistic 
picture  of  the  dismay  caused  in  province  after  province  at 
his  approach,  and  the  fatuous  efforts  of  the  inhabitants  to 
save  themselves  by  repairing  their  idols  (xli,  5-7).  These 
idols,  indeed,  of  which  the  lands  are  full,  never  fail  to  call 
out  his  keen  satire  ;  though  his  contempt  is  not  so  much 
for  them  as  for  the  besotted  minds  of  men  who  can  make 
them  with  their  own  hands  and  then  worship  them  as  if 
they  could  avail  anything  (xl,  18-20;  xliv,  12-20).  He  does 
not  spare  even  the  most  distinguished  of  the  Chaldean  deities 
(xlvi,  I,  2)  nor  the  occult  learning  and  culture  which  is  the 
pride  of  this  highly  civilized  land  (xlvii,  12-15).  His  dis- 
dain, in  fact,  is  for  the  muddy  mind  that  has  been  molded 
by  idol  service  (xli,  29 ;  xliv,  9  ;  xlv,  20).  0\cr  against 
such  a  mind,  which  has  no  insight,  he  sets  the  mind 
molded  to  the  mind  of  Jehovah  ;  which  indeed  he  feels  his 
own  to  be,  —  glorying,  not  without  a  certain  egotistic  pride, 
in  being  the  first  to  interpret  the  signs  of  the  times  (xli, 
26-28),  and  challenging  his  heathen  neighbors  to  show  a 
like  discernment,  whether  of  good  or  evil  (xli,  21-24). 
This  personal  touch  —  with  which  he  connects  his  sarcastic 
onslaught  on  heathen  culture  (cf.  xli,  28,  29)  —  is  eminently 
human  and  natural.  It  is,  as  we  have  noted,  a  kind  of 
overflow  of  his  prophetic  enthusiasm,  as  the  tremendous 
meanings  of  coming  events  crowd  upon  his  consciousness. 

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The  event  which  is  causing  such  dismay  to  the  outlying 

nations,   however,   and  such  dull  confusion  to  idol-besotted 

^^    „  „     minds    has    no    essential    terrors    for    the    exiled 

2.  The  Call 

to  be  Wit-  people  of  Israel.  Rather,  it  is  their  long  pur- 
nesses  posed   and   ripened   opportunity.     When,   in  his 

opening  chapter,  he  first  looks  in  upon  them,  he  sees  them 
sequestered,  unheeded,  deeming  themselves  forgotten  of 
Jehovah  (xl,  27).  But  no,  he  says,  it  is  not  in  Him  who 
numbers  the  stars  to  faint  from  his  purpose,  or  to  fail  those 
who  have  waited  for  Him  (xl,  26-31).  Their  true  mission 
is  before  them.  "'  They  that  wait  for  Jehovah,"  he  says, 
"  shall  renew  their  strength  ;  they  shall  mount  up  with 
wings  as  eagles  ;  they  shall  run,  and  not  be  weary  ;  they 
shall  walk,  and  not  faint."  He  is  calling  to  duty  a  people 
grown  to  new  life  and  vigor — a  great  contrast  to  the  froward 
nation  with  whom  the  First  Isaiah  labored. 

Then,  when  he  has  broached  the  call  and  function  of  the 
coming  conqueror  and  satirized  the  scurrying  alarm  caused 
among  the  other  nations  (xli,  1-7),  he  turns  to  his  people 
to  announce  the  part  that  Israel  is  to  play  as  a  factor  in 
the  great  world  movement.  Addressing  them  in  the  singu- 
lar, as  a  unit,  with  endearing  names  that  go  back  to  their 
very  beginnings  (xli,  8,  9),  he  speaks  hope  and  courage  to 
them  :  "  Fear  thou  not,  for  I  am  with  thee ;  be  not  dis- 
mayed, for  I  am  thy  God  ;  I  will  strengthen  thee  ;  yea,  I 
will  help  thee  ;  yea,  I  will  uphold  thee  with  the  right  hand 
of  my  righteousness  "  (vs.  10).  The  ultimate  function  that 
he  ascribes  to  them,  though  an  astonishing  one,  is  in  the 
straight  line  of  what  has  been  prophesied  before.  ""  Behold," 
he  reports  Jehovah's  words,  "  I  have  made  thee  to  be  a 
new  sharp  threshing  instrument  having  teeth  ;  thou  shalt 
thresh  the  mountains  and  beat  them  small,  and  shalt  make 
the  hills  as  chaff.  Thou  shalt  winnow  them,  and  the  wind 
shall  carry  them  away,  and  the  whirlwind  shall  scatter  them  ; 
and  thou  shalt  rejoice  in  Jehovah,  thou  shalt  glory  in  the 

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LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

Holy  One  of  Israel"  (vss.  15,  16).  This  refers  to  an 
elemental  sifting  and  separating  process  which  from  the 
beginning  of  the  movement  had  been  before  the  eyes  of 
prophecy.  A  century  and  a  half  before,  Micah,  foreseeing 
this  day  (cf.  Mic.  iv,  10),  had  said,  "Arise  and  thresh, 
O  daughter  of  Zion  "  (Mic.  iv,  13);  not  much  later  Isaiah 
had  exclaimed  of  Babylon,  "  O  thou  my  threshing,  and  the 
grain  of  my  floor !  That  which  I  have  heard  from  Jehovah 
of  hosts,  the  God  of  Israel,  have  I  declared  unto  you " 
(Isa.  xxi,  10)  ;  and  Jeremiah,  prophesying  a  similar  destruc- 
tive mission  for  Israel  (Jer.  li,  20-24),  had  made  Babylon 
""hke  a  threshing-floor  at  the  time  when  it  is  trodden" 
(Jer.  li,  33).  These  prophecies  can  refer  of  course  only  to 
a  far-reaching  spiritual  action  which  the  image  of  threshing 
and  winnowing  fitly  typifies  ;  their  implication  is  not  political 
or  militaristic  but  elemental. 

When,  however,  the  prophet's  description  comes  to  what 
the  people  of  Israel  are  specifically  tp  do  or  be  in  bringing 
about  this  tremendous  result,  his  trenchant  metaphors  yield 
place  to  literal  terms  of  quite  other  implication.  He  sum- 
mons them  to  be  true  to  their  superior  enlightenment  as 
Jehovah's  witnesses  (xliii,  8-13);  in  other  words,  to  stand 
as  discerners  of  His  truth  and  representatives  of  His  re- 
deeming and  saving  power.  To  this  end  it  is  that,  having 
overcome  the  assaults  and  allurements  of  heathenism,  they 
are  facing  this  world  crisis  of  the  coming  of  Cyrus.  Having 
their  part  in  the  movement,  they  have  nothing  to  fear. 
They,  who  alone  of  all  the  nations  can  be  addressed  as 
"  the  blind  people  that  have  eyes,  and  the  deaf  that  have 
ears"  (xliii,  8);  are  called  from  their  durance  (cf.  xlii,  22) 
to  be,  in  a  profound  sense,  the  conscience,  the  moral  dy- 
namic, of  the  coming  world.^  Witnesses  of  other  gods  and 
cults,  too,  are  challenged  to  show  a  similar  insight ;  but 
none  can  interpret  past  or  future,  or  fathom  the  reality  of 

1  Cf.  above,  p.  137. 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

things  (xli,  28  ;  xliii,  9;  xliv,  9).  This  situation  it  is  which, 
making  the  prophet  so  enthusiastic  over  the  hght  vouch- 
safed to  Israel,  rouses  such  disdain  of  the  elaborate  but 
futile  learning  of  Babylon  (xliv,  25  ;  xlviii,  12-15)  ^nd  the 
muddled  mind  of  the  idol  devotee  (xlvi,  20). 

Such,  then,  is  the  mission  of  Israel  as  a  community  of 
men  consciously  redeemed  and  enlightened,  —  a  community 
by  whose  character  the  world  may  identify  the  will  and 
word  of  Jehovah.  An  essential  condition  of  this  mission 
is  liberation  from  Chaldean  bondage  and  home  reconstruc- 
tion ;  and  for  this,  in  its  material  and  political  sense,  Cyrus 
is  the  divinely  ordained  factor. 

It  is  not  the  material  and  political  sense,  however,  that  the 
prophet  has  first  in  mind.  Their  liberation,  and  by  conse- 
quence their  witnessing,  is  spiritual.  Cyrus's  clemency  is  its 
sign,  but  its  essence  is  of  their  own  redemption  and  free  will. 
This  is  connoted,  I  think,  in  the  prophet's  twice-uttered 
exhortation  to  his  people  to  "go  forth"  from  Babylon  (xlviii, 
20-22  ;  lii,  II,  12).  To  two  classes  of  people  he  urges  this 
exhortation,  classes  whom  perhaps  we  may  roughly  distin- 
guish as  the  more  worldly  minded  and  the  more  spiritually 
minded.  It  is  not  until  chapter  xlviii  that  he  differen- 
tiates, and  then  he  addresses  himself  to  "'  the  house  of 
Jacob,  .  .  ,  who  swear  by  the  name  of  Jehovah,  and  make 
mention  of  the  God  of  Israel,  but  not  in  truth,  nor  in  right- 
eousness." These  he  admonishes  as  men  w'ho,  availing 
themselves  of  the  Jehovah  name  and  distinction,  are  not 
fully  refined  of  false  alloy  (xlviii,  10)  and  so  have  not 
won  to  the  peace  of  the  Hebrew  hope  (vss.  17-19).  To 
them,  as  to  the  faithful,  the  opportunity  is  open  to  go  forth 
from  Chaldean  corruptions  into  the  purer  satisfactions  of 
life ;  but  coujDled  with  this  exhortation  is  the  austere  warn- 
ing, "'  There  is  no  peace,  saith  Jehovah,  to  the  wicked  " 
(xlviii,  20-22;  cf.  Ivii,  21  ;  Jer.  li,  6).  Quite  different  is 
the  tone  of  his  exhortation  to  the  distinctive  Israel  of  the 

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LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

redemption  (perhaps  identical  with  the  First  Isaiah's  "rem- 
nant "  who  would  returnj.  They  are  to  depart  in  clean  and 
seemly  order,  bearing  the  vessels  of  Jehovah,  and  with  the 
calm  deliberateness  of  inherent  freedom  and  courage  (lii, 
II,  12).  With  these,  and  not  with  the  double-minded,  is 
the  witnessing  that  issues  in  freedom  and  peace. 

When  through  his  prophet  spokesman  Jehovah  first  calls 
the  captive  people  of  Israel  to  be  a  factor  in  his  world  cam- 
paign, his  designation  of  them  is,  "  my  servant," 
niy  Servant    —  ^    title    of    trust    and    responsibility    repeated 

whom  I  many  times  and  with  marked  emphasis  (xli,  8,  Q  ; 

Uphold"  ...  ^  ....  ..  ^     ^       V  -J       , 

xln,   19;    xlni,   10;    xhv,    i,   2,    21).      Evidently 

meant  to  be  a  term  of  unique  distinction,  it  always  names 
the  people  in  the  singular  number,  seeming  thus  to  connote 
their  solidarity  as  one  common  will  called  to  administer  the 
purpose  of  Jehovah.  Israel  as  a  community  made  fit  by 
experience  is  the  servant  of  Jehovah,  the  agency  of  His 
world  design.  To  this  end  the  community  is  repeatedly 
reminded  of  the  redemption  and  forgiveness  to  which  it 
has  won  (cf.  xliv,  21-23),  and  encouraged  to  "fear  not"; 
as  if  it  were  to  commit  itself  intrepidly  to  some  new  and 
untried  adventure  in  life  and  to  hazard  victory  thereby. 

.  But  what  is  this  adventure  }    The  Servant  of  Jehovah  — 
what  is  the  specific  nature  and  method  of  his  service  .-' 

The  passages  wherein  Israel  as  a  nation  or  community 
is  directly  addressed  do  not  answer  this  question  very  clearly. 
They  are  full  of  enthusiasm  and  assurance,  but  they  do  not 
reduce  the  adventure  to  definite  action.  For  this  we  must 
look  to  another  class  of  passages  —  a  notable  series  wherein 
the  Servant  is  described  in  the  third  person,  or  wherein 
he  speaks  for  himself.  In  these  he  appears  as  a  personage, 
with  traits  and  experiences  not  communal  but  individual. 
Described  —  or  describing  himself  —  as  one  known  to  all 
without  being  named,  he  is  so  presented  that  these  distinc- 
tive traits  and  experiences  are  brought  to  light  for  Israel  to 

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cherish  or  pity  or  emulate.  It  is  as  if  this  person,  whoever 
he  is,  were  introduced  as  the  hving  embodiment,  if  they  will 
receive  it  so,  of  the  people's  highest  and  deepest  service, 
standing  thus  as  their  supreme  type  and  representative  before 
Jehovah  and  the  world.  So  in  an  ideal  solidarity  of  community 
and  person,  both  are  alike  called  the  Servant  of  Jehovah. 

Note.  T]ie  Recognition  of  the  Seriumt.  It  will  help  to  a  clearer 
identification  of  this  Servant  of  Jehovah  if  we  take  care  to  distinguish 
the  traits  that  are  brought  to  light  according  as  he  is  spoken  to,  spoken 
of,  or  himself  speaks.  They  come  out  so  distinctively  that  we  cannot 
regard  this  grammatical  alternation  of  first,  second,  and  third  persons 
as  fortuitous. 

1.  When  spoken  to,  as  he  is  in  the  first  instance  (xli,  8),  the  Servant 
is  identified  with  the  Israelite  community ;  is  bidden  not  to  fear  the  on- 
slaughts of  conquerors  or  the  upheavals  of  history,  because  the  people 
itself  has  a  conquering  mission,  as  a  divinely  created  instrument  to 
thresh  and  winnow  the  world  (xli,  14-16;.  Again  he  is  identified  with 
the  people  of  Israel  as  Jehovah's  one  true  and  enlightened  witness  in 
the  midst  of  idol  cults  (xliii,  loj:  and  later  he  is  addressed  as  a  nation 
formed  from  the  womb  for  the  light  and  leading  of  the  nations  (xliv,  1-5). 
This  communal  function  is  epitomized  in  xliv,  21-23. 

2.  It  is  when  the  Servant  is  spoken  of  that  the  most  mysterious 
traits  of  his  character  are  given ;  as  if  Jehovah  were  describing  one 
who  only  dimly  realized  how  much  his  personality  and  mission  meant. 
First  he  appears  as  the  patient,  unobtrusive,  sympathetic,  persistent 
one  who  is  destined  to  make  justice  and  spiritual  emancipation  prevail 
(xlii,  1-9);  then  as  one  blind  and  deaf,  as  if  just  emerging  from  gloom 
to  a  dazzling  light  (xlii,  19-21 ),  in  which  description  "  the  blind  people 
that  have  eyes  and  the  deaf  that  have  ears  "  ^Iso  are  summoned  to  their 
mission  (xliii,  8-13).  Next  he  is  described  as  one  whose  visage  was 
marred  by  suffering  and  who  was  destined  to  startle  nations  as  he  had 
astonished  men  (lii,  13-15):  and  finally,  as  one  who.  though  despised 
and  rejected,  gave  his  life  to  save  others,  and  in  patient  silence  bore 
their  sins  and  made  intercession  (liii,  I2).  Yet  in  that  sacrifice  lies  his 
victor)^  (liii,  11,  12). 

3.  In  three  passages  the  Servant  of  Jehovah  speaks  for  himself. 
First,  in  a  solemn  proclamation  he  accepts  the  mission  to  which  he  was 
born  (xlix,  1-7):  but  instead  of  conceiving  his  function  as  that  of  a 
threshing  instrument  (cf.  xli.  1  5)  he  identifies  himself  with  Israel  (vs.  3) 
as  a  finely  tempered  weapon  fur  Jehovah's  service  (vs.  2  ;  cf.  xi,  4),  and 


LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

recognizes  that  his  mission  is  not  merely  to  restore  "  the  preserved  of 
Israel  "  but  to  give  light  and  salvation  to  the  whole  world  (vs.  6). 
Second,  he  represents  himself  as  one  scholarly  and  eloquent,  who  for 
the  sake  of  his  beneficent  work  submits  to  shame  and  indignity  yet 
holds  himself  firmly  and  confidently  to  his  purpose  (1,  4-9),  and  calls 
for  emulators  of  the  same  faith  and  zeal  (vss.  10,  11).  Finally,  he  defines 
as  his  own  aim  (not  separable  from  that  of  his  people),  that  for  which 
he  was  anointed,  the  ideal  character  and  mission  first  laid  down  for  the 
Servant  of  Jehovah  (Ixi,  1-3  ;  cf.  xlii,  5-9).  It  is  this  last  noted  mission 
that  Jesus  takes  up  and  appropriates  as  his  own  in  the  synagogue  at 
Nazareth,  his  home  town  (Luke  iv,  16-21). 

Thus  the  prophet  bids  his  people  contemplate  one  in 
whom  the  highest  ideals  of  personality  are  portrayed,  as 
embodied  or  at  least  adumbrated  in  the  idealized  experience 
of  Israel.  And  the  prophecy  is  that  this  type  of  personal 
worth,  even  by  its  gentleness  and  sympathy  and  self- 
effacement,  is  destined  to  prevail.  An  estranging,  almost 
incredible  ideal  for  its  pre-Christian  time  (cf.  liii,  i),  yet  it 
is  one  which  in  the  New  Testament  era  became  real  and 
normal.  It  is  the  idealized  portrayal  of  the  Messianic  per- 
sonality, human  yet  imbued  with  the  divine  spirit,  which  is 
the  redeeming  health  and  adultness  of  manhood. 

F'or  this  masterly  portrayal  we  owe  much  to  the  prophet's 
creative  sense,  but  not  all.  It  does  not  read  like  a  pure 
The  Personal  invention  or  abstraction  ;  it  calls  its  readers  to 
Original  bchold  an  individualized  character.    And  yet  what 

personal  model  can  history  furnish  to  answer  to  it.-* 

The  developed  Christian  thought  has  so  identified  this 
portrayal,  especially  in  the  fifty-third  chapter,  with  the  per- 
son of  Jesus  Christ  (cf.,  for  example.  Acts  viii,  30-35),  whose 
earthly  ministry  came  more  than  five  and  a  half  centuries 
latei:,  that  Biblical  students  are  disposed  either  to  ignore  the 
question  whether  such  a  personage  ever  existed,  or  to  merge 
the  qualities  here  given  in  tho.se  of  the  idealized  community 
of  Israel.  This  rather  arbitrary  judgment,  however,  leaves 
too  much  of  the  problem  unsolved. 

[317] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

One  person  there  was,  qualified  by  dignity  and  station, 
to  merit  the  title  "Servant"  in  common  with  the  people 
of  Israel.  That  person  was  their  king.  We  will  remember 
that  when  in  597  b.c.  the  flower  of  the  Jewish  court  and 
realm  was  surrendered  into  captivity  (2  Kings  xxiv,  12-15), 
their  king  Jehoiachin  went  with  them,  and  for  thirty-seven 
years  —  equal  to  a  whole  generation  —  was  a  state  prisoner 
in  Babylon,  sequestered  from  his  subjects,  as  they  from  the 
affairs  of  the  world.  King  and  people  were  in  like  case, 
though  his  was  much  the  harder  lot.  During  that  time 
they,  so  far  as  government  was  concerned,  were  left,  except 
for  their  enforced  exile,  to  their  own  way  (cf.  liii,  6),  mind- 
less of  him;  and  he  —  well,  "who  shall  declare  his 
generation  ?  "  We  will  recall  what  occurred  at  the  end  of 
that  time.  He  was  released  from  his  imprisonment  and 
treated  with  honor  and  clemency  all  the  rest  of  his  life. 
We  do  not  know  how  long  he  lived,  for  there  is  no  record 
of  his  death  ;  but  if  this  prophecy  of  the  Second  Isaiah 
was  written,  as  it  seems  to  have  been,  early  in  Cyrus's 
career  of  conquest.  King  Jehoiachin,  if  still  living,  would  be 
about  seventy  years  old. 

Note.  T/ie  A'arraiii^e  of  Jehoiachin"  s  Release.  "  And  it  came  to 
pass  in  the  seven  and  thirtieth  year  of  the  captivity  of  Jehoiachin  king 
of  Judah,  in  the  twelfth  month,  on  the  seven  and  twentieth  day  of  the 
month,  that  Evil-Merodach  king  of  Babylon,  in  the  year  that  he 
began  to  reign,  did  lift  up  the  head  of  Jehoiachin  king  of  Judah  out  of 
prison ;  and  he  spake  kindly  unto  him,  and  set  his  throne  above  the 
throne  of  the  kings  that  were  with  him  in  Babylon,  and  changed  his 
prison  garments.  And  Jehoiachin  did  eat  bread  before  him  continually 
all  the  days  of  his  life ;  and  for  his  allowance  there  was  a  continual 
allowance  given  him  of  the  king,  every  day  a  portion,  all  the  days  of 
his  life"  (2  Kings  XXV,  27-30  =  Jer.  Hi,  31-34). 

Many  descriptions  and  allusions  throughout  the  Second 
Isaiah  seem  to  turn  on  this  strange  experience  of  surrender 
and  imprisonment  and  release.  It  is  viewed  as  the  wonder- 
ful paradox  of  the  captivity.     In  illustration  of  this  we  may 

[318] 


LITERARY   FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

note  first  what  the  Servant  himself  reports  from  Jehovah 
as  he  reahzes  how  tremendous  is  his  mission  (xhx,  5-7). 
"  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  the  Redeemer  of  Israel,  and  his 
Holy  One,  to  him  whom  man  despiseth,  to  him  whom  the 
nation  abhorreth,  to  a  servant  of  rulers  :  '  Kings  shall  see 
and  arise ;  princes,  and  they  shall  worship ;  because  of 
Jehovah  that  is  faithful,  even  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  who 
hath  chosen  thee  ' "  (vs.  7).  Thus,  with  incidental  mention 
of  the  rejection  and  ignominy  noted  later  in  the  prophet's 
retrospect  (liii,  3,  4  ;  cf.  Jer.  xxii,  28),  is  given  the  Servant's 
personal  assurance  of  the  homage,  also  mentioned  later, 
which  will  come  to  him,  the  wondering  sense  of  a  king- 
liness  beyond  that  of  kings,  when  the  motive  and  meaning 
of  his  sufferings  become  known  (Hi,  13-15).  All  this, 
though  highly  idealized,  seems  to  recognize  an  experience 
similar  to,  not  to  say  identical  with,  that  of  King  Jehoiachin. 
We  ha\e  spoken  above  of  the  prophet's  tone  of  wonder- 
ing enthusiasm,  like  the  enthusiasm  of  a  great  discovery.^ 
We  can  almost  specify  the  moment  when,  like  a  sudden 
surge  of  insight,  that  discovery  with  its  tremendous  vista 
of  prophetic  vision  dawned  upon  his  mind.  It  was  the 
moment  of  the  king's  release,  when,  dazed  and  dulled  and 
with  visage  marred  (Hi,  14),  he  came  forth  from  the  gloom 
and  silence  of  his  dungeon.  To  the  prophet  this  was  like 
an  unwittingly  acted  parable,  with  its  direct  parallel  and 
appeal  to  the  people.  ""  Hear,  ye  deaf,"  he  says,  "  and  look, 
ye  blind,  that  ye  may  see  "  (xlii,  1 8).  Then,  as  if  describing  the 
object  they  are  to  see,  follows  this  singular  passage  :  "Who 
is  blind,  but  my  servant  ?  or  deaf,  as  my  messenger  that  I 
send  .?  who  is  blind  as  he  that  is  at  peace  with  me,^  and 

1  See  above,  p.  308. 

2  In  the  first  edition  of  his  commentary  on  Isaiah  ("  The  Prophecies  of 
Isaiah,"  Vol.  I,  p.  260),  without  following  up  its  connotation,  Professor 
Cheyne  translates  this  clause,  '"  Who  is  blind  as  the  surrendered  one  ? " 
A  very  significant  rendering  if  the  prophet  had  King  Jehoiachin  in  mind ; 
a  very  vague  and  enigmatic  one  otherwise. 

[319] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LLrERATLRE 

blind  as  Jehovah's  servant  ?  Thou  seest  many  things,  but 
thou  observest  not ;  his  ears  are  open,  but  he  heareth  not " 
(vss.  19,  20).^  This,  with  the  succeeding  verse,  sounds  as 
if  meant  for  an  individual  case  ;  but  turning  then  to  men- 
tion the  people  at  large  as  in  a  similar  state  of  spiritual 
duress  (vss.  22-25),  ^"d  to  hearten  them  with  the  assurance 
of  redemption  (xliii,  i-/),  he  calls  on  them  to  "bring  forth 
the  blind  people  that  have  eyes,  and  the  deaf  that  have 
ears  "  (vs.  8),  that  they  in  like  access  of  vision  may  become 
Jehovah's  witnesses,  thereby  qualifying  as  His  Servant 
(vs.  lO).  It  is  as  if  the  prophet  were  calling  attention  to 
the  one  singular  phenomenon  of  prison  release  which, 
contained  the  most  pregnant  lesson  of  their  emancipation 
and  mission. 

Not  the  eventual  release  alone,  however,  —  the  long 
ordeal  itself,  too,  after  the  Ser\-ant  "  was  taken  from  prison 
and  judgment  "  ^  (liii,  8),  yields  rich  store  of  revelations, 
partly  as  reported  by  the  prophet,  partly  as  overheard  from 
the  Ser\-ant  himself.  The  most  familiar  of  these,  and  for 
its  time  the  most  estranging,  is  that  contained  in  the  fifty- 
third  chapter.  Here  in  a  vivid  retrospect  (cf.  Hi,  14)  the 
prophet,  with  pity  and  compunction,  —  for  he  too  was  at 
one  with  the  nation  in  misunderstanding  and  rejecting 
(cf.  vss.  2,  3),  —  reflects  how  all  this  suffering  with  its  patient 
silence  was  undergone  as  just  bearing  his  people's  sins,  and 
that  while  like  sheep  they  had  gone  their  own  willful  ways 
he,  led  like  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter,  was  their  unheeded 
sacrifice.  Xor  was  this  in  vain,  for  survival  and  success 
are  predicted  of  it.  "  He  shall  see  of  the  travail  of  his 
soul,  and  shall  be  satisfied.  .  .  .   Therefore  will  I  divide  him 

'  Macaulay,  in  a  remark  in  his  Essay  on  Milton,  has  noted  a  similar 
phenomenon  to  this.  "  When  a  prisoner  first  leaves  his  cell,"  he  writes, 
"  he  cannot  bear  the  light  of  day ;  he  is  unable  to  discriminate  colors,  or 
recognize  faces." 

^  I  quote  here  the  translation  of  the  Authorized  Version,  as  being  both 
more  correct  and  more  lucid  than  that  of  the  Revised. 

[320] 


LITERARY   FRUITS   OF  THE   EXILE 

a  portion  with  the  great,  and  he  shall  divide  the  spoil  with 
the  strong"  (vss.  ii,  12).  The  long  results  of  that  silent 
expiation  will  earn  the  Servant  a  name  among  the  mighty 
of  the  earth,  a  victory  which  hitherto  the  world  had  only 
military  terms  to  describe.  Such  is  the  prophet's  awe-stricken 
discovery  as  he  reflects  on  the  experience  of  him  whose 
first  emergence  from  duress  so  astonished  many. 

In  his  report  and  interpretation  of  this  expiatory  ordeal, 
the  prophet  has  revealed  much,  but  not  all.  When  we  note 
what  Jehovah  Himself  says  to  the  personal  Servant,  and 
overhear  the  latter's  response  thereto,  we  get  an  added 
idea  of  the  true  inwardness  of  that  strange  surrender  to 
duress  and  death.  It  was  not  blind,  except  as  faith  is  blind. 
It  was  not  weak.  It  was  indeed  not  surrender  at  all,  except 
to  the  ascertained  will  and  word  of  God.  The  prison  expe- 
rience, with  its  cruelties  and  indignities;  was  transmuted 
into  a  sturdy  avowal  of  loyalty  and  faith.  "  I  gave  my  back 
to  the  smiters,"  the  Servant  says,  "and  my  cheeks  to  them 
that  plucked  off  the  hair  ;  I  hid  not  my  face  from  shame 
and  spitting"  (1,  6).  Yet  instead  of  letting  this  engender 
resentment  and  rancor,  he  set  his  face  like  a  flint  against 
the  shame  (vs.  7)  and  listened  as  scholars  do  for  Jehovah's 
word,  that  he  himself  might  give  comforting  words  to  the 
weary  and  oppressed  (vss.  4,  5).  Of  the  ultimate  rightness 
of  this  attitude  he  is  so  sure  that  he  challenges  any  to 
gainsay  him  (vss.  8- 10).  This  corresponds  remarkably  with 
Jehovah's  first  characterization  of  "  my  Servant  whom  I 
uphold  "  (xlii,  1-4)  and  with  the  commission  that  was  then 
laid  upon  the  latter  :  "I,  Jehovah,  have  called  thee  in  right- 
eousness, and  will  hold  thy  hand,  and  will  keep  thee,  and 
give  thee  for  a  covenant  of  the  people,  for  a  light  of  the 
Gentiles,"  —  to  which  commission  were  added  these  remark- 
able words :  "to  open  the  blind  eyes,  to  bring  out  the 
prisoner  from  the  dungeon,  and  them  that  sit  in  darkness 
out  of  the  prison-house  "  (vss.  6,  7).    The  Servant  himself 

[321] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

recalls  this  latter  feature  of  his  commission  in  his  large 
realization  of  it  (xlix,  9)  ;  and  later,  in  his  summary  of  what 
he  is  anointed  to  do,  a  prominent  element  is  "to  proclaim 
liberty  to  the  captives,  and  the  opening  of  the  prison  to 
them  that  are  bound"  (Ixi,  1-3).  All  this  is,  to  say  the 
least,  full  of  suggestion.  The  insistent  reference  to  prison 
and  release  seems  to  recognize  an  individual  experience 
which  of  course  can  be  attributed  to  only  one  person,  the 
royal  prisoner  Jehoiachin.  Whether  it  is  he  whom  the 
prophet  has  idealized  into  the  personal  Servant  of  Jehovah 
and  thereby  made  the  pattern  and  type  of  the  communal 
Servant  is  left  for  the  candid  student  to  judge  for  himself. 
I  have  given  the  data. 

In  thus  portraying  the  fortunes  of  this  mysterious  Servant 
the  prophet  has  done  more  than  rescue  a  royal  personage 
from  despite  and  rejection.  He  has  rescued  the  Hebrew 
history  itself.  Taking  the  event  which  Israel  deemed  the 
most  calamitous  in  its  annals  —  namely  the  seeming  igno- 
minious surrender  of  the  king  and  the  flower  of  his  realm 
to  Babylon  —  he  has  through  the  faith  of  this  personage 
given  it  motive  and  power,  nay,  has  revealed  it  as  a  tre- 
rnendous  spiritual  adventure  such  as  the  world  had  never 
dreamed  of  (cf.  Hi,  15  ;  Hab.  i,  5).  It  is,  in  truth,  a  stoop- 
ing in  order  to  conquer,  an  integral  part  of  the  paradoxical 
campaign  waged  by  the  Spirit  of  Jehovah.  From  the  very 
start  the  king  was  despised  and  rejected  of  men.  Even  his 
historians  misjudged  him,  calling  his  reign  - —  of  which  the 
sole  event  was  the  surrender  —  an  evil  one  (2  Kings  xxiv,  9 
=  2  Chron.  xxxvi,  9).  His  contemporary  Jeremiah,  who  at 
a  later  date  advised  his  people  to  imitate  the  surrender, 
was  puzzled  and  doubtful  over  his  exile  (Jcr.  xxii,  28-30). 
Ezekiel  speaks  of  him  tenderly  indeed,  but  only  in  the 
vagueness  of  parable  (Ezek.  xvii,  22-24).  The  purpose  and 
power  of  the  surrender,  in  fact,  could  come  to  light  only 
after  the  release,  when  the  king  came  forth  as  from  burial 

[322] 


LITERARY  FRIUTS  OF  THE  EXILE 

to  life.  Here  come  in  these  wonderful  accounts  of  the 
Servant,  who  accepted  the  leading  of  the  divine  Spirit 
(1,  5),  confirmed  an  inflexible  conviction  that  his  course 
was  right  (vss.  7-9),  and  exerted  his  powers  in  sympathy 
and  comfort  (vs.  4  ;  xlii,  3,  4).  He  himself  was  learning  to 
walk  by  sheer  blind  faith  rather  than  by  sight,  —  as  the 
prophet  puts  it,  "Who  is  blind  but  my  servant"  (xlii,  iS)  ? 
And  the  spirit  of  this  learner  and  sufferer  is  commended 
to  the  surrendered  nation  as  the  pattern  and  type  of  its 
communal  mission.  Thus  a  new  historic  ■  force  was  intro- 
duced to  a  darkened  and  brutal  civilization,  a  force  greater 
than  man  or  man-made  devices  can  wield,  whose  gentle  yet 
mighty  working,  biding  its  time  of  germination  and  leaven- 
ing influence,  emerged  at  length  full-orbed  in  the  person 
and  ministry  of  Christ.  Here  we  see  it  as  it  were  in 
embryo,  in  adumbration,  discovered  and  illumined  by  the 
rapt  insight  of  an  enthusiastic  prophet.  It  is  essentially  the 
sense  of  this  gentle  yet  all-potent  Messianic  force,  which 
he  has  felt  even  in  surrender  and  prison,  and  of  its  fit- 
ness to  become  the  spiritual  dynamic  of  a  redeemed  people, 
which  so  crowds  the  prophet's  words  with  the  joy  of  "  good 
tidings  to  Zion."  He  has  seen  it  rise  in  the  secluded  expe- 
rience of  a  kingly  personality  to  steadfast  faith  and  sympathy 
and' helpfulness  and  sacrifice,  and  in  the  spiritual  force  of 
that  personality  he  sees  the  promise  and  power  of  salvation 
for  all  mankind. 

But  this  spiritual  force  must  have  its  personal  and  com- 
munal agencies  to  administer  and  impart  it  to  the  darkened 
and  needy  nations  of  mankind.  It  cannot  be  left  to  the 
individual  goodness  and  influence  of  a  personage  just  re- 
leased from  prison,  kingly  though  he  is  and  honored  by  his 
captors.  That  is  why  the  prophet  seeks  so  zealously  to  induce 
his  people,  in  a  solidarity  of  faith  and  loyalty,  to  make  their 
king's  noble  aim  their  own.  Only  so  are  they  in  their  turn 
to  be  the  real   Servant  of  Jehovah,   ministering  His  world 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

purpose.  Accordingly,  as  soon  as  he  has  portrayed  the 
sacrificial  devotion  of  the  personal  Servant,  (liii),  with  a  re- 
newed call  to  faith  and  courage  (liv)  he  sets  before  them,  as 
the  other  prophets  of  the  captivity  have  done,  a  new  cove- 
nant with  Jehovah  (cf.  Jer.  xxxi,  31-34  ;  Ezek.  xxxvii,  26), 
connecting  it,  as  did  they  with  David  (cf.  Jer.  xxiii,  5-8  ; 
XXX,  9  ;  Ezek,  xxxiv,  23,  24  ;  xxxvii,  24).  "  I  will  make 
an  everlasting  covenant  with  you,"  he  reports  from  Jehovah, 
"even  the  sure  mercies  of  David,  l^ehold,  I  have  given 
him  for  a  witness  to  the  peoples,  a  leader  and  commander 
to  the  peoples  "  (Iv,  3,  4).  Thus  the  prophets  of  the  cap- 
tivity are  in  agreement  as  to  the  ideal  destiny  of  Israel. 
There  is  this  momentous  advance,  however,  to  be  noted  of 
the  Second  Isaiah,  that  this  Davidic  leadership  is  to  be  not 
merely  of  the  Jewish  nation  but  universal  (Iv,  4  ;  cf.  xlix,  6), 
and  it  is  to  be  not  merely  a  receiving  of  light  and  blessing 
on  their  part,  as  if  they  could  have  the  monopoly  of  Jeho- 
vah's favor,  but  a  giving  out  also,  an  impartation  ;  in  other 
words,  they  are  to  be  a  witnessing  and  missionary  people. 
"  Behold,"  the  prophecy  continues,  "  thou  shalt  call  a  nation 
that  thou  knowest  not ;  and  a  nation  that  knew  not  thee 
shall  run  unto  thee,  because  of  Jehovah  thy  God,  and  for 
the  Holy  One  of  Israel  ;  for  he  hath  glorified  thee  "  (Iv,  5). 
Thus  with  a  glowing  rhapsody  of  privilege  and  duty  and 
promise,  whose  main  inspiration  is  the  discovery  and  identi- 
fication of  the  Servant  of  Jehovah,  this  section  of  the  Book 
of  Isaiah  (xl-lv)  closes. 

With  chapter  Ivi  a  new  section,  or  "act,"  opens,  the  last 
of  the  five  into  which  the  Book  of  Isaiah  naturally  falls  ; 
which  section  I  have  ventured  to  entitle  "  Clearing  the  Way 
for  a  New  Universe,"  ^  That  it  is  a  new  section  is  evident 
from  the  change  of  style  and  subject.  1^^-om  rhapsody  and 
unconditioned  promise  the  transition  is  abruptly  to  warning 

1  See  above,  pp.  192,  302. 

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LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

and  austere  counsel.  Thus  the  prophecy  goes  on  for  four 
chapters  (Ivi-lix)  before  the  strain  of  encouragement  and 
propitious  outlook,  on  the  larger  and  as  it  were  cosmic 
scale,  is  resumed.  It  is  as  if  the  prophet,  before  he  could 
round  out  his  immense  theme,  must  needs  go  back  and, 
picking  up  some  essential  elements  hitherto  omitted  or  ig- 
nored, fit  them  into  his  comprehensive  scope  of  treatment. 
Such,  to  my  mind,  is  in  effect  the  significance  of  the  group 
of  chapters  that  opens  the  final  section. 

To  make  clear  the  relation  of  this  part  of  Isaiah  to  the 

rest,  let  us   look  a  little  more  closely  than  we   have  done 

into   the   religious   and   secular   situation   of   the 

Word  to         exiles   to  'whom   the  prophecy  is  addressed.     It 

Israel  at  ^[\\  \^q  remembered  that  not  a  little  homoge- 
Large  .  . 

neous   group  but  a  whole  diversified   nation  are 

captive  here  in  Babylon,  and  that  a  class  of  them  has 
already  been  admonished  (xlviii)  for  their  lack  of  sincerity 
and  integrity. 

When  in  chapter  xl  the  prophet  finds  Israel  a  sequestered 
people  deeming  themselves  forgotten  of  Jehovah,  and  en- 
courages th^m  to  wait  for  the  sure  fulfillment  of  His  word 
(xl,  27-31),  he  proceeds  to  associate  the  ""good  tidings"  he 
is  bringing  them  with  "  Zion  "  and  ""Jerusalem"  (xl,  9),  the 
sacred  spots  of  the  homeland.  These  are  not  local  terms, 
however ;  they  are  terms  used  in  prophetic  phrase  to  designate 
that  choice  element  of  the  nation  whose  hearts  are  still  in  the 
homeland  and  whose  religious  zeal  and  enthusiasm  may  be 
counted  on  to  carry  them  back  when  the  release  comes.  These 
correspond  to  what  the  First  Isaiah  called  ""  the  remnant," 
.now  grown  in  numbers  and  matured  faith  until  the  typical 
Israel  can  be  measured  by  their  spiritual  standard.  In  all 
the  chapters  from  xl  to  Iv,  except  xlviii,  this  type  character, 
the  character  of  a  people  purged  from  the  virus  of  idolatry, 
is  taken  for  granted,  and  the  gloyving  assurance  of  forgive- 
ness and   redemption   and   peace   is   meant   for  such.     But 

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still  the  earlier  prophecy  holds  true  that  it  is  the  remnant 
that  shall  return  ;  and  the  tone  of  chapter  xlviii  indicates 
that  a  considerable  portion  of  the  people  does  not  come  up 
to  the  pure  standard  imputed  in  the  body  of»  the  prophecy. 
These  must  not  be  left  out  of  the  account.  Nor  must  they 
be  segregated  as  if  they  were  outsiders.  The  redemption 
of  Israel  is  not  granted  as  a  favoritism.  The  same  freedom 
of  return,  of  "  going  forth  from  Babylon  "  {xlviii,  20),  is 
held  out  to  them  as  to  others  ;  the  same  boon  of  peace ; 
but  "there  is  no  peace,  saith  Jehovah,  to  the  wicked" 
(vs.  22)  is  the  sternly  coupled  warning.^  So  the  prophet 
holds  the  coming  high  destiny  of  Israel  open  to  all ;  for  the 
time  is  past  to  differentiate  between  the  ""  good  and  bad 
figs,"  as  did  Jeremiah  (Jer.  xxiv),  or  between  the  remnant 
and  the  majority,  as  did  the  F'irst  Isaiah,  or  between  the 
kingdoms  of  Judah  and  Israel,  as  Ezekiel  still  had  to  do, 
though  confident  of  their  eventual  reunion  (Ezek.  xxxvii, 
15-23).  He  is  not  minded  to  discriminate,  though  chapter 
xlviii  reveals  a  class  still  in  need  of  warning  and  correction. 
For  all  there  is  a  Zion  and  a  holy  city  to  which  in  spirit 
they  may  return.  In  other  words,  while  the  prophet's  glow- 
ing descriptions  of  the  new  order  connote  an  audience  in 
like  intense  mood,  they  are  meant  equally  for  Israel  at  large, 
"whether  they  will  hear  or  whether  they  will  forbear" 
(cf.  Ezek,  iii,  11),  and  whose  religious  emotions,  though  per- 
haps just  as  genuine,  are  not  pitched  in  so.  high  a  key.  It 
is  in  this  closing  section  of  the  book,  I  think,  that  the 
prophet  has  in  mind  the  needs  of  this  more  secular  or  lay 
class.  Accordingly  he  leaves  rhapsody  and  writes  in  the 
more  sober  and  didactic  style.  Whether  this  part  of  the  book 
was  written  before  the  end  of  the  exile  or  after,  and  whether 
in  Babylon  or  in  Palestine,  does  not  definitely  appear  ;  the 
only  indication  of  time  is  the  complaint  in  Ixiv,  10,  11  (cf. 
Ixiii,  18,  19),  that  Jerusalem  is  still   a   desolation   and   the 

^  See  above,  p.  314. 
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LITERARY  FRUITS   OF  THE   EXILE 

Temple  in  ruins.  Some  critics  have  conjectured  for  its 
authorship  a  Trito-Isaiah,  but,  as  I  think,  without  sufficient 
warrant.  My  impression  is  that  the  released  king  Jehoia- 
chin,  standing  behind  the  prophet  as  a  kind  of  silent  partner 
and  still  functioning  as  the  anointed  king,  may  have  had 
much  to  do  with  the  sane  and  as  it  were  legislative  counsels 
therein  given ;  this  seems  borne  out  by  the  interpolated 
Servant  passage,  Ixi,  1-3,  in  which,  echoing  xlii,  6,  7,  the 
Servant  states  what  he  is  anointed  to  do. 

The  "'  Israel  at  large  "  to  whom  these  chapters  are  ad- 
dressed may  be  regarded  as  the  general  lay  element  of  the 
people  wherever  they  are  in  the  world.  The  time  had  come 
for  them  to  enter  upon  their  destiny  as  a  cosmopolitan 
people.  One  sees  this  from  the  outcome  of  the  Chaldean 
exile.  As  a  matter  of  history  the  First  Isaiah's  prophecy 
that  a  remnant  should  return  came  literally  to  pass.  It  was, 
after  all,  only  a  remnant,  only  a  comparatively  small  minority, 
that  recolonized  the  land  of  Palestine.  The  great  majority, 
having  for  two  generations  ^  found  homes  and  interests 
elsewhere,  remained  as  it  were  citizens  of  the  world,  while 
still  genuine  patriots  of  the  typical  Zion  and  Jerusalem 
(cf.  xlviii,  2),  — an  ideal  of  loyalty  which,  in  spite  of  historic 
vicissitudes,  the  race  has  maintained  to  this  day.  So  from 
the  exile  onward  the  Biblical  literature,  dealing  with  Israel 
at  large,  must  reckon  with  the  Israel  of  the  synagogue  as 
of  the  Temple,  with  the  Jews  of  the  dispersion  and  of  the 
capital  alike. 

"He  that  taketh  refuge  in  me  shall  possess  the  land,  and 
shall  inherit  my  holy  mountain.  And  he  will  say,  '  Cast  ye 
up,  cast  ye  up,  prepare  the  way,  take  up  the  stumbling-block 
out  of  the  way  of  my  people.'  For  thus  saith  the  high  and 
lofty  One   that   inhabiteth   eternity,  whose  name  is   Holy : 

^  So  reckoned  from  the  prophetic  notation  of  the  period  as  seventy 
years  (see  Jer.  xxv,  j  i,  12  ;  Dan.  ix,  2),  which  is  put  in  a  round  rather  than 
a  historic  number. 

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I  dwell  in  the  high  and  holy  place,  with  him  also  that  is 
of  a  contrite  and  humble  spirit,  to  revive  the  spirit  of  the 
humble,  and  to  revive  the  heart  of  the  contrite" 
Tendencies  (lvii»  ^  3-^5  I  cf.  Ixii,  lo).  Such  may  be  deemed 
to  be  ti-,e  keynote  of  these  searching  chapters.    There 

Rectified  ,,-,,,  ,  ,r 

are  stumbhng-blocks  to  be  removed  from  the 
character  and  career  of  Israel  at  large  :  vestiges  of  an  in- 
veterate proclivity  to  idolatry  and  servility  (Ivii,  3-10;  Ixv, 
3-7);  tendencies  ominous  of  a  hard  and  heartless  disposition 
(Ivi,  9-lvii,  2) ;  which,  if  not  corrected  by  the  tender  spirit 
of  humility  and  sympathy,  will  work  mischief.  In  his  plea 
for  tolerance  and  welcome  toward  foreigners  (Ivi,  1-8)  the 
prophet  hints  not  obscurely  at  the  race  pride  and  exclusive- 
ness  which  in  later  times  became  too  strong  a  trait  of  the 
restored  nation  ;  his  prophetic  caution  against  such  narrow- 
ness is  the  opening  of  Israel's  most  sacred  doors  to  all : 
"  My  house  shall  be  called  a  house  of  prayer  for  all  peoples  " 
(Ivi,  7).  The  two  forms  of  religious  cultus  that  he  recog- 
nizes, namely,  observance  of  the  Sabbath  (Ivi,  2  ;  Iviii,  13,  14) 
and  fasting  (Iviii,  1-9),  are  merely  those  to  which  Israel, 
deprived  of  temple,  was  reduced  in  exile ;  and  they  are 
interpreted  with  remarkable  inwardness,  as  embodying  all 
that  the  true  man  needs  in  maintaining  spiritual  relations 
with  God  and  fellow  man.  The  spirit  of  Christianity  lies 
involved  in  these  simple  customs,  sincerely  and  unselfishly 
observed.  In  sum,  these  four  chapters,  Ivi  to  lix,  seem  to 
embody  the  prophet's  desire  to  train  Israel's  traits  and 
tendencies  out  of  perverseness  to  that  vital  redemption 
and  covenant  (lix,  20,  21)  which  shall  make  them  a  people 
not  only  righteous  and  conscientious  but  so  gracious  and 
tolerant  that  their  religion  shall  be  an  attraction  to  the 
nations  that  need  it.  He  has  detected  the  tendencies  to 
clannishness  and  race  pride,  to  self-righteousness  and  exclu- 
siveness,  which  if  not  checked  will  make  against  this.  If 
they  are  to  be  dispersed  in  the  earth,  their  witnessing  for 

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LITERARY   FRUITS  OF  THE   EXILE 

Jehovah  must  be  not  only  an  enhghtening  power,  it  must 
also  be  an  art  —  the  art  of  living  with  others.  To  this  end  the 
stumbling-blocks  must  be  removed  from  the  way,  that  their 
character  may  be  lovable  as  well  as  admirable.  If  in  subse- 
quent history  the  Jewish  people  have  neglected  to  cultivate 
the  power  of  being  beloved,  it  is,  as  these  chapters  show, 
not  for  lack  of  warning. 

With  the  sixtieth  chapter  the  prophet's  strain  of  rhap- 
sody and  enthusiasm,  which  the  chapters  of  admonition 
The  Vision  interrupted,  is  resumed  and  kept  up  in  a  kind 
Finished :  of  climax,  to  the  end  of  the  book.  But  with  a 
mation  and  difference.  The  fortieth  and  succeeding  chapters 
Retrospect  called  Israel  forth  from  their  long  waiting  to 
deliverance  and  opportunity.  The  captive  people  are  to  learn 
the  way  of  the  Servant  of  Jehovah,  and  submit  themselves 
in  faith  to  its  gentle  and  kindly  but  in  the  end  prevailing 
influence.  It  is  in  effect  the  beginning  of  communal  life  on 
a  new  and  unheard-of  plan,  with  the  assured  return  to  Zion 
as  its  guaranty  and  occasion.  In  the  sixtieth  and  succeed- 
ing chapters  we  have  the  thrill  and  enthusiasm  of  the  grand 
culmination  ;  wherein  at  the  end  of  her  long  ordeal  Israel 
is  apostrophized  as  so  established  in  the  restored  home,  and 
so  truly  the  light  and  leading  of  the  world,  as  to  be  the 
center  of  attraction  and  reverent  joy  to  all  peoples.  "  For, 
behold,  darkness  shall  cover  the  earth,"  the  prophecy  begins, 
"and  gross  darkness  the  peoples;  but  Jehovah  will  arise 
upon  thee,  and  his  glory  shall  be  seen  upon  thee.  And 
nations  shall  come  to  thy  light,  and  kings  to  the  brightness 
of  thy  rising"  (Ix,  2,  3). 

This  is  not  to  be  read  as  a  Utopian  rhapsody,  though 
indeed  its  outlook  goes  over  from  the  national  to  the  uni- 
versal. It  is  merely  the  jubilant  finish  of  the  vision  which 
was  outlined  as  the  theme  of  the  book  at  the  beginning  of 
the  First  Isaiah  (ii,  2,  4  ;  cf.  Mic.  iv,  1-3),  and  which,  on 
lines   later   clarified    in   Christ   and   Christianity,   is   still    in 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

process  of  coming  to  pass.  We  may  indeed  call  it  Isaiah's 
sublime  presage  of  the  Christian  sway  and  power  in  the 
coming  times,  as  his  conception  of  the  Servant  of  Jehovah 
is  his  presage  of  the  personal  Christ.  The  person  and  the 
era  are  correlative.  We  must,  to  be  sure,  say  of  it  as  the 
people  said  of  Ezekiel's  presage,  "The  vision  that  he  seeth 
is  for  many  days  to  come,  and  he  prophesieth  of  times  that 
are  far  off"  (Ezek.  xii,  27)  ;  but  the  elements,  the  spiritual 
principles,  are  all  brought  to  light  in  the  course  of  the 
prophecy,  and  it  is  evidently  the  purpose  of  these  ensuing 
chapters  to  pass  them  in  summary  and  review. 

Let  us  briefly  run  over  some  of  these  elements. 

"  Who  are  these  that  fly  as  a  cloud,  and  as  the  doves 
to  their  windows"  (Ix,  8)?  In  such  visualizing  terms  the 
prophet  depicts  the  eager  throngs  who  will  some  day  press 
onwards,  not  only  from  the  dispersed  sons  of  Israel  but 
from  the  lands  of  those  who  despised  and  wronged  them," 
to  a  holy  central  place  which,  under  the  name  "  The  city 
of  Jehovah,  the  Zion  of  the  Holy  One  of  Israel"  (Ix,  14), 
is  conceived  as  at  once  a  sanctuary,  a  city,  and  a  common- 
wealth. It  is  not  the  place,  however,  as  a  civic  or  religious 
capital  that  the  prophet  has  mainly  in  mind,  nor  its  restored 
wealth  and  prosperity ;  rather  it  is  the  regenerated  people 
and  the  spirit  of  good  will  and  beneficence  that  animates 
them.  In  other  words,  he  translates  the  new  life  of  Israel, 
according  to  his  consistent  ideal,  into  terms  not  political  or 
commercial  but  spiritual  and  essentially  Messianic.  "  Thou 
shalt  call  thy  walls  Salvation  and  thy  gates  Praise"  (Ix,  18). 
Three  chapters  (Ix-lxii)  are  devoted  to  this  phase  of  his 
subject ;  in  which  by  various  hints  of  recapitulation  he  brings 
previous  strains  of  prophecy  to  bear.  We  cannot  recount 
these  all  here.  There  is,  for  instance,  the  lately  broached 
idea  of  their  making  themselves  loved.  "  Whereas  thou 
hast  been  forsaken  and  hated,  so  that  no  man  passed 
through  thee,  I  will  make  thee  an  eternal  excellency,  a  joy 

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LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

of  many  generations"  (Ix,  15).  Then  the  personal  Servant 
of  Jehovah  speaks  once  more,  in  terms  that  can  only  be 
applied  to  their  idealized  king,  to  repeat  the  charge  that 
Jehovah,  by  his  anointing,  has  laid  upon  him  to  fulfill  : 
preaching  good  tidings  to  all  who  are  needy  and  heavy-laden 
(Ixi,  1-3  ;  cf.  xlii,  5-7)  ;  the  well-known  passage  which  in 
later  days  our  Lord  Jesus  took  up  and  applied  to  his  own 
mission  (Luke  iv,  17-19).  In  a  following  passage,  by  the 
bestowal  of  new  names  upon  people  and  land,  the  reproach 
of  adulterous  unfaithfulness,  which  from  the  time  of  Hosea 
and  the  First  Isaiah  (cf.  i,  21  ;  Ivii,  3-10)  all  the  prophets 
have  fastened  upon  Israel's  idolatrous  proclivities,  is  gra- 
ciously taken  away,  and  the  land  is  recognized  as  remarried 
to  Jehovah  and  to  her  youthful  sons  (Ixii,  4,  5).  Once  more, 
too,  the  prophet  exhorts  his  people,  as  he  has  admonished 
the  doubtful  ones,  to  clear  the  way  and  gather  out  the  ob- 
structions, that  the  salvation  of  the  holy  people  may  have 
free  course  (Ixii,  10-12)  ;  an  exhortation  which,  by  its  charge 
to  "lift  the  ensign  for  the  peoples,"  puts  upon  the  people 
themselves  the  mission  attributed  by  the  F'irst  Isaiah  to  the 
Messianic  scion  of  Jesse  (xi,  10,  12),  and  by  the  Second 
Isaiah  connected  with  the  personal  Servant  of  Jehovah 
(xlix,  22).  In  short,  this  finished  vision  contemplates  the 
restored  nation  as  in  effect  a  Messianic  people,  "And  they 
shall  call  them,  'The  holy  people,'  'The  redeemed  of  Jeho- 
vah':  and  thou  shalt  be  called,  "Sought  out,'  "A  city  not 
forsaken'"  (Ixii,  12).  Such  is  the  idealized  destiny  of  Israel. 
In  chapters  Ixiii  and  Ixiv  the  prophet,  by  way  of  summing 
up  the  deep  significance  of  the  now  culminating  prophetic 
TheProtaeo-  movement,  first  introduces  upon  the  scene  the 
nist  and  His  supreme  Protagonist  Jehovah  Himself  recounting 
anipaign  j^-^  solitary  campaign,  and  then  by  a  natural  tran- 
sition voices  the  contrite  people's  penitent  response  thereto. 
The  passage  Ixiii,  1-6,  wherein  Jehovah  speaks,  merits  full 
quotation  here  for  its  dramatic  sublimity. 

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The  Prophet 

Who  is  this  that  cometh  from  Edom, 
With  crimsoned  garments  from  Bozrah  ? 
This  that  is  glorious  in  his  apparel, 
Marching  in  the  greatness  of  his  strength  ? 

Jehovah 
I  that  speak  in  righteousness,  mighty  to  save. 

The  Prophet 

Wherefore  art  thou  red  in  thine  apparel. 

And  thy  garments  like  him  that  treadeth  in  the  winevat? 

Jehovah 

I  have  trodden  the  winepress  alone ; 

And  of  the  peoples  there  was  no  man  with  me  : 

Yea,  I  trod  them  in  mine  anger. 

And  trampled  them  in  my  wrath  ; 

And  their  lifeblood  is  sprinkled  upon  my  garments, 

And  I  have  stained  all  my  raiment. 

For  the  day  of  vengeance  was  in  my  heart. 

And  the  year  of  my  redeemed  is  come. 

And  1  looked,  and  there  was  none  to  help ; 

And  I  wondered  that  there  was  none  to  uphold ; 

Therefore  mine  own  arm  brought  salvation  unto  me ; 

And  my  wrath,  it  upheld  me. 

And  I  trod  down  the  peoples  in  mine  anger, 

And  made  them  drunk  in  my  wrath, 

And  I  poured  out  their  lifeblood  on  the  earth. 

It  will  be  noted  that  in  the  Scripture  idea  vengeance, 
like  the  motive  of  this  destrtictive  campaign,  is  regarded 
as  the  sole  prerogative  of  Jehovah  (cf.  Deut.  xxxii,  35  ; 
Rom.  xii,  19),  and  that  it  is  represented  as  taken  in  the 
prosecution  of  "  his  work,  his  strange  work,"  that  he  may 
"bring  to  pass  his  act,  his  strange  act"  (Isa.  xxviii,  21). 
Such  may  be  called  the  paradox  of  Isaiah's  vision.  While 
Jehovah  is  represented  as  doing  His  severe  and  searching 
work  alone,  because  He  finds  none  wise  or  just  enough  to 


LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

do  it  for  Him  (cf.  xli,  28;  lix,  15-17),  to  His  chosen  agencies 
—  Israel,  Cyrus,  the  Servant  —  are  prescribed  constructive 
and  restorative  vvorl:,  as  befits  the  proper  relations  of  man 
with  man.  The  passage  above  quoted  answers  in  an  appar- 
ently intended  way  to  a  passage  in  the  First  Isaiaii  where 
Jehovah  announces  that  He  "  hath  a  sacrifice  in  Bozrah,  and 
a  great  slaughter  in  the  land  of  Edom"  (see  xxxiv,  5-15). 
We  have  seen  how;  by  all  the  prophets,  Edom  is  especially 
denounced,  and  always  for  its  unbrotherly  hatred  and  treach- 
ery.^ So,  in  its  deep  implication,  this  answering  pair  of 
passages  seems  to  describe  Jehovah's  radical  vengeance 
against  the  unbrotherliness  of  man  and  man,  of  which 
wickedness   Edom  is  the  speaking  type. 

Immediately  after  this  sanguinary  scene,  however,  the 
prophet,  returning  to  Israel,  says,  "  I  will  make  mention 
of  the  loving-kindnesses  of  Jehovah,"  and  in  a  wonderful 
contrast  brings  God  near  to  the  heart  of  man.  "  In  all 
their  affliction, "  he  says,  "he  was  afflicted,  and  the  angel 
of  his  presence  saved  them  ;  in  his  love  and  in  his  pity  he 
redeemed  them,  and  he  bare  them,  and  carried  them  all 
the  days  of  old  "  (Ixiii,  9  ;  cf.  xlvi,  3,  4).  The  thought  of 
this  human  tenderness  of  God  rouses  the  answering  thought 
of  Israel's  lack  of  response  thereto.  They  have  treated  His 
spirit  in  such  a  way  that  He  must  fight  against  them 
(Ixiii,  10) ;  and  so,  offering  a  prayer  in  the  name  of  his 
people,  the  prophet  makes  confession  of  their  sins  and 
ungratefulness,  addressing  Jehovah,  apparently  for  the  first 
time  in  a  people's  prayer,  as  Father  (Ixiii,  16  ;  Ixiv,  8,  9), 
though  earlier  prophets  have  revealed  that  intimate  relation 
(i,  2  ;  cf.  Jer.  iii,  4,  19  ;  xxxi,  9).  With  this  humble  con- 
fession, he  urges  before  Jehovah  a  plea  for  the  holy  city 
and  Temple,  which  are  still  in  ruins  (Ixiii,  17-19;  Ixiv, 
10-12), — an  indication  that  this  part  of  Isaiah  may  be 
dated  near  the  end  of  the  exile  or  early  in  the  return. 

1  See  above,  pp.  215,  272,  notes. 
[333  ] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

In  the  closing  two  chapters,  Ixv  and  Ixvi,  the  prophet 
reaches  the  apocalyptic  height  of  his  message,  in  the  proph- 
m^  -n         J  ecv  of  the  "far-off  divine  event"  to  which  all  this 

The  Purposed 

and  Clarified  redemptive  Struggle  and  development  has  tended, 
Issue  —  nothing  less  than  the  creation  of  new  heavens 

and  a  new  earth,  so  much  more  glorious  than  the  present  and 
former  things  that  these  will  be  forgotten  (Ixv,  17,  18  ;  Ixvi, 
22,  23).  The  glorious  outlook  and  its  conditions  are  portrayed 
with  his  characteristic  enthusiasm.  The  prospect,  however,  is 
not  an  unclouded  glory.  There  are  still  elements  that  make 
sadly  against  an  era  of  universal  felicity  and  peace.  While 
Jehovah  is  inquired  of  by  those  that  asked  not  for  Him 
(Ixv,  i),  yet  there  are  those  of  His  own  people  still  rebellious, 
their  minds  still  darkened  with  the  corrupt  customs  of  idolatry 
(Ixv,  2-7),  men  that  '"  prepare  a  table  for  Fortune,  and  that 
fill  up  mingled  wine  unto  Destiny,"  instead  of  honoring  the 
living  God  of  Israel.  His  mention  of  these  seems  a  rever- 
sion to  the  inert  and  indifferent  class  to  whom  chapters  xlviii 
and  Ivi  to  lix  are  addressed.  Yet  still  He  will  not  leave 
them  out  of  the  purpose  of  mercy.  "Thus  saith  Jehovah," 
he  says,  "As  the  new  wine  is  found  in  the  cluster,  and  one 
saith,  '  Destroy  it  not,  for  a  blessing  is  in  it,'  so  will  I  do 
for  my  servants'  sake,  that  I  may  not  destroy  them  all  " 
(Ixv,  8).  Not  their  idolatry  alone,  but  the  vain  pride  that 
is  engendered  by  such  fashionable  culture,  is  what  incurs 
the  disgust  of  Jehovah.  His  contempt  is  poured  out  on  the 
men  that  say,  "  Stand  by  thyself,  come  not  near  to  me,  for 
I  am  holier  than  thou.  These  are  a  smoke  in  my  nose," 
He  says,  "a  fire  that  burneth  all  the  day"  (Ixv,  5).  To 
men  of  this  disposition,  whose  unholy  foreign  culture  has 
made  them  self-inflated  and  exclusive,  the  prophet  addresses 
a  final  warning  and  discrimination.  It  is  they  who  in  the 
glad  new  order  will  be  spiritually  starved  and  forlorn,  w'hile 
Jehovah's  true  servants,  called  by  another  name,  shall  rejoice 
in  the  God  of  truth  and  grace  (Ixv,  13-16). 

[334] 


LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

Note.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  while  in  chapters  xl  to  Iv  the 
prophet  has  uniformly  addressed  Israel  in  the  singular  number  as  Jeho- 
vah's servant,'  he  here  drops  that  term  of  solidarity  and  discriminates 
within  the  nation  itself  between  servants  and  outsiders.  Only  twice 
before  has  this  plural  designation  been  used,  once  of  the  native  Israel 
(liv,  I  7),  and  once  of  converted  foreigners  becoming  servants  (Ivi,  6)  and 
so  sharing  the  blessings  of  the  "  house  of  prayer  for  all  peoples  "  (Ivi,  7). 

Like  Ezekiel  before  him  this  prophet  of  the  Second  Isaiah 
is  looking  forward  to  a  Temple  rebuilt  from  ruins,  but  with 
a  vastly  enlarged  ideal  and  with  a  more  inward  concept  of 
what  the  restoration  shall  mean.  To.  Ezekiel  it  meant  a 
regained  land  and  a  reorganized  ecclesiastical  service  ;.  his 
ideals  and  plans  were  essentially  priestly  (Ezek.  xl-xlviii). 
To  the  Second  Isaiah  it  meant  a  worship  befitting  "  new 
heavens  and  a  new  earth,"  a  regime  so  much  more  spacious 
and  generous  that  the  narrow  old  order  no  more  would 
come  to  mind  (Ixv,  17),  and  so  much  more  intimate  that  no 
thought  of  ritual  is  raised.  "Thus  saith  Jehovah,  Heaven 
is  my  throne,  and  the  earth  is  my  footstool  :  what  manner 
of  house  will  ye  build  unto  me  .''  and  what  place  shall  be 
my  rest .''  For  all  these  things  hath  my  hand  made,  and  so 
all  these  things  came  to  be,  saith  Jehovah  ;  but  to  this  man 
will  I  look,  even  to  him  that  is  poor  and  of  a  contrite  spirit, 
and  that  trembleth  at  my  word"  (Ixvi,  i,  2  ;  cf.  Ivii,  15). 

These  words  we  may  take  as  the  sublime  summing-up  of 
a  prophecy  which,  setting  out  with  comfort  to  a  redeemed 
and  purified  people  (xl,  i,  2),  encourages  them  to  rise  from 
their  long  ordeal  of  exile  and  avail  themselves  of  the  coming 
of  Cyrus  to  start  anew  in  a  recolonized  land,  a  rebuilt  Jeru- 
salem, and  a  newly  founded  Temple  (xliv,  26-28).  Here 
then  is  adumbrated  the  Temple  that  it  is  their  mission  to 
found  :  as  spacious  as  the  universe,  as  deep  laid  as  the 
regenerate  heart  of  man.  In  reading  this  description  one 
thinks  of  the  prayer  of  Solomon  at  the  dedication  of  the 

1  See  above,  p.  315. 
[335] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

first  Temple,  and  of  the  wonderful  spiritual  experience  that 
the  nation  has  traversed  since  then.  "  But  will  God  in  very 
deed  dwell  with  men  on  the  earth  ?  behold,  heaven  and 
the  heaven  of  heavens  cannot  contain  thee ;  how  much 
less  this  house  that  I  have  builded  !  "  (i  Kings  viii,  27  = 
2  Chron.  vi,  18).  The  older  relations  with  Jehovah  are 
indeed  to  return  ;  but  clarified,  enlarged,  made  inward  and 
universal  in  the  loyal  spirit  of  the  Servant  of  Jehovah. 

To  the  prophet,  by  w-ay  of  retrospect,  all  this, traces  back 
to  a  wonderful  spiritual  birth  wherein  a  whole  nation,  as  it 
were  in  a  day  and  after  a  difficult  gestation,  is  brought 
to  a  strange  new  life  (Ixvi,  7-9).  What  specific  event,  or 
events,  the  prophet  had  in  mind  we  will  not  undertake  to 
say  ;  we  recall,  however,  the  mystic  birth  of  the  Immanuel 
child  foretold  by  the  First  Isaiah  and  the  actual  birth  an- 
nounced,^ which  we  have  regarded  as  symbolizing  the  uprise 
of  a  vital  regenerating  power  in  the  saving  remnant ;  we 
recall  how  little  growth  that  power  seems  to  have  made 
when  the  crisis  approached  (xxvi,  17-19)  ;  how  despairing 
King  Hezekiah  felt  when  it  actually  came  because  "'  the 
children  are  come  to  the  birth,  and  there  is  not  strength  to 
bring  forth"  (xxxvii,  3).^  Yet  in  spite  of  this  difficult  travail 
—  perhaps  in  consequence  of  its  miraculous  deliverance  from 
the  Assyrian  peril  —  the  nation  seems  to  have  leaped  to  a 
faith  and  stamina  which  survived  a  century  both  of  persecu- 
tions and  of  corrupting  lures,  growing  all  the  w'hile  ;  until 
at  length  the  Second  Isaiah  could  in  fervid  terms  assure 
them  that  they  were  redeemed  and  ready  for  a  work  wherein 
the  nation  could  prevail  in  the  world  as  the  agency  of  divine 
enlightenment  and  salvation.  Some  epoch,  it  would  seern, 
the  prophet  had  in  mind,  when  the  nation  was  born  to  all 
this.  Was  it  near  the  time  when  Isaiah  the  son  of  Amoz, 
after  his  long,  thankless  work,  laid  down  his  unfinished 
vision,  leaving  it  readv,  after  suitable  growth  and  ripening 

1  See  above,  pp.  176,  177.  -  See  above,  pp.  182-184. 

[336] 


LITERARY  FRUITS   OF  THE   EXILE 

had  intervened,  to  be  taken  up  and  completed  by  the  later 
prophet  whom  we  call  the  Second  Isaiah  ?  I  am  not  re- 
luctant to  think  so.  On  such  line  of  spiritual  birth  and 
development  as  this  recognizes,  the  Vision  of  Isaiah,  be- 
cause it  is  a  vision  rising  beyond  the  local  and  temporal 
into  eternal  values,  is  unitary  and  homogeneous.  The  whole 
prophetic  landscape  is  there. 

Note.  With  this  study  of  the  Second  Isaiah,  the  culmination  of 
Old  Testament  prophecy,  we  close  our  consideration  of  the  literary 
activities  in  Chaldea  (see  above,  p.  257).  One  more  work  remaining, 
one  of  the  greatest  indeed  of  all,  namely,  the  Book  of  Job,  which  is 
closely  akin  in  spirit  to  the  Servant  of  Jehovah  in  Isaiah,  is  reserved 
for  consideration  in  a  later  connection,  it  being  in  fact  the  great  classic 
uf  the  completed  canon  ;  see  below,  pp  463  ft. 

II.    The  Literature  of  REiisTABLiSHMENT  ix  the 
Holy  Land 

We  have  seen  how  fruitful  a  seed  plot  the  Chaldea  of  the 
exile  proved,  under  the  constructive  faith  of  such  men  as 
Ezekiel,  Daniel,  and  the  Second  Isaiah,  for  the  production 
of  that  forward-looking  literature  which  we  associate  with 
these  names.  In  the  material  sense  that  literature  was  a 
preparation  for  the  return  from  exile  to  the  ancestral  home, 
from  bondage  to  freedom.  In  a  spiritual  sense  it  was  far 
more  momentous  ;  for  it  was  an  indispensable  step  toward 
inspiring  Israel  to  be  a  saving  missionary  light  and  power  in 
the  world.  For  this  the  return  was  a  necessary  prerequisite. 
"It  is  too  light  a  thing,"  Jehovah  had  said  to  the  Servant, 
"that  thou  shouldest  be  my  servant  to  raise  up  the  tribes 
of  Jacob,  and  to  restore  the  preserved  of  Israel :  I  will  also 
give  thee  for  a  light  to  the  Gentiles,  that  thou  mayest  be 
my  salvation  unto  the  end  of  the  earth  "  (Isa.  xlix,  6).  It 
was  for  this  great  object  that  the  Jewish  people's  two 
generations  of  hidden  experience  in  a  land  of  splendid  but 
sterile  religion,  during  which  time  they  became  as  it  were 

[337] 


GUIDEBOOK    I'O   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

immune  to  the  idolatrous  disease  germ  which  had  so  long 
infected  them,   was  the  divinely  ordained  provision. 

For  the  literary  activity  that  rose  out  of  the  experiences 
of  the  regained  homeland,  the  situation  and  impulsion  were 
Back  to  ^^^y  different.     From  a  life  of  relative  comfort 

•  Hardship  and  and  prosperity  in  the  richest  land  of  the  earth 
isi  usion  j.j^g  returned  exiles  must  for  many  trying  years 
enter  the  life  and  bear  the  hardships  of  virtual  settlers 
and  pioneers.  For  the  Holy  Land  to  which  they  so  joy- 
fully returned,  having  lain  so  long  waste,  was  reverting  to 
primitive  conditions,  and  Jerusalem  was  filled  with  the 
chaos  and  rubbish  of  ruin. 

When  in  538  b.c.  the  edict  of  Cyrus  came,  permitting 
all  who  were  so  minded  to  return  to  Jerusalem  and  rebuild 
there  the  House  of  Jehovah  (Ezra  i,  2,  3  =  2  Chron.  xxxvi, 
23),  a  caravan  numbering  nearly  fifty  thousand,  of  all 
classes  needed  for  reorganization  (Ezra  ii,  64),  set  out  from 
Chaldea  for  the  eight-hundred-mile  journey  homeward.  The 
company,  only  a  relatively  small  proportion  of  the  Jewish 
people  at  large,  was  made  up  mostly  of  the  younger  and 
more  energetic  element,  born  in  Chaldea,  men  who  could 
bear  the  perils  of  the  way  and  the  toils  of  resettlement ; 
men  too  of  stanch  and  sterling  faith  who,  responding  to 
the  enthusiastic  summons  of  the  Second  Isaiah,  had  con- 
secrated themselves  to  bear  the  vessels  of  Jehovah  back  to 
their  ancient  repository  in  Jerusalem.  The  undertaking,  as 
had  been  promised,  was  auspicious.  "  For/'  the  prophet 
had  assured  them,  "ye  shall  not  go  out  in  haste,  neither 
shall  ye  go  by  flight :  for  Jehovah  will  go  before  you  ;  and 
the  God  of  Israel  will  be  your  rearward"  (Isa.  Hi,  11,  12), 
And  it  was  turning  out  even  so.  Monarch  and  people, 
natives  and  kinsfolk,  joined  in  friendly  and  helpful  ways 
to  speed  the  journey. 

As  this  book  is  concerned  with  the  literature  of  the  times, 
we  must   needs   pass  over   the   details  of   the   history  that 

[338] 


LITERARY   FRUITS  OF  THE   EXILE 

here  supervenes/  except  as  mention  of  it  is  necessary  as 
a  setting  for  the  Hterature  which  the  age  produced.  In 
538  B.C.,  soon  after  their  arrival  at  Jerusalem,  the  returned 
exiles  made  it  their  first  duty  to  clear  away  the  debris  and 
erect  the  altar  of  burnt  offering  on  the  conjectured  site  of 
the  former  one  (Ezra  iii,  i,  2).  It  was  not  until  520  b.c, 
however,  eighteen  years  later,  that  they  took  hold  in  down- 
right earnest  to  build  the  Temple,  and  not  until  four  years 
more,  just  seventy  years  after  the  destruction  of  the  first 
one,  that  the  Second  Temple,  destined  to  be  the  cultural 
center  of  Judaism  until  the  time  of  Herod  the  Great  (37  b.c. 
to  A.D.  4),  was  dedicated  (Ezra  vi,  15,  16).  The  main  reason 
of  this  delay  it  is  not  hard  to  guess.  I'he  people's  zeal  was 
chilled  by  disillusion.  Setting  out  in  the  fervor  of  a  large 
but  foreshortened  prophetic  vision,  they  had  not  counted 
on  the  seeming  shrinkage  that  is  sure  to  come  when  an 
object  of  idealized  imagination  becomes  an  object  of  con- 
crete sense  perception.  Yet  to  deal  with  such  shrinkage  — 
keeping  the  ideal  strong  and  sound  at  the  core  of  the  real 
—  was  the  essential  discipline  on  which  the  emancipated 
people  of  Israel  was  now  unwittingly  embarked.  It  was  a 
foretaste  of  the  kind  of  experience  that  on  a  more  developed 
'^cale  a  later  generation  encountered  when  Jesus  came  to 
challenge  their  recognizing  faith  .'^  They  had  doubtless  fed 
their  awakened  hopes  on  some  such  good  fortune  as  Isaiah 
had  portrayed  in  his  sixtieth  chapter,  with  visions  of  eager 
nations  flocking  to  their  light  and  bringing  both  pious  hom- 
age and  material  prosperity.  What  they  actually  found  was  a 
demolished  Temple,  a  ruined  capital,  a  desolated  countryside, 
a  life  of  stern  toil  and  poverty.  It  was  a  situation  fitted  to 
test  their  spiritual  stamina  and  loyalty.  The  genuineness  of 
their  inner  life,  that  stratum   deeper  than  enthusiasm  and 

1  For  a  very  interesting  account   of  all   this  later   Jewish   history  see 
Hunter,  "  After  the   Exile,"   Edinburgh,  1890. 
^  See  below,  p.  5-;i. 

[339] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL   LITERATURE 

immediate  interest,  was  at  stake.  One  is  reminded  of  the 
truth  expressed  in  a  stanza  of  Matthew  Arnold's  : 

We  cannot  kindle  when  we  will 

The  fire  which  in  the  breast  resides. 

The  spirit  bloweth  and  is  still. 

In  mystery  our  soul  abides. 

But  tasks  in  hours  of  insight  will'd 

Can  be  through  hours  of  gloom  fulfill'd.^ 

It  is  with  such  a  national  situation  as  this  that  the  final 
voice  of  Old  Testament  prophecy,  the  cadence  as  it  were 
of  the  prophetic  strain,  drawing  in  from  the  far  vision  to 
the  pressing  emergency,   must  deal. 


Prophets  of  the  Rebuilt  Temple.  "  What  manner  of 
house  will  ye  build  unto  me  ?  "  Jehovah  had  said  through 
the  Second  Isaiah,  "and  what  place  shall  be  my  rest" 
(Isa.  Ixvi,  1)  .''  The  question  carried  with  it  the  implication 
running  through  all  the  thought  of  the  great  prophet,  that 
henceforth  the  only  temple  that  could  satisfy  Israel's  wor- 
ship must  be  as  large  as  heaven  and  earth,  and  that  their 
religious  life  must  be  sincerely  adju.sted  to  the  ideal  of  a 
world's  salvation.  Only  so  could  they  be  true  witnesses  for 
Jehovah  (cf.  Isa.  xliii,  12;  xlv,  22).  But  here  in  their  re- 
gained home  they  had  fallen  on  "the  day  of  small  things" 
(Zech.  iv,  10);  their  superficial  dream  was  disillusioned;  so 
they  had  allowed  their  prophetic  fervor  to  lapse.  And  with 
this  lapse  there  had  crept  in  moral  evils  which  the  pro- 
phetic spirit,  concerned  as  it  was  with  the  claims  of  a  re- 
deemed life,  could  not  suffer  to  go  unreproved.  So,  before 
its  function  was  over,  prophecy  must  gird  itself  for  one  more 
appeal.  It  was  a  home  apj^eal  this  time,  though  still  its  far 
horizon  was  world-wide. 

1  Arnold,  "  Morality." 

[340] 


LITERARY   FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

Two  prophets,  Haggai  and  Zechariah,  beginning  their 
activity  in  the  same  year,  — -  namely,  the  second  year  of  the 
Persian  king  Darius  I  (520  b.c),  — addressed  themselves  to 
the  needs  of  the  situation.  Their  plea,  following  rather  the 
lines  of  Ezekiel  than  of  the  Second  Isaiah,  as,  indeed,  the 
times  demanded,  was  for  the  rebuilding  of  the  Temple, 
that  it  might  become  the  religious  and  cultural  center  which 
it  was  meant  to  be.  Both  prophets  were  of  the  company 
returned  from  Chaldea  ;  their  work  may  properly  be  reckoned, 
therefore,  among  the  literary  fruits  of  the  exile. 

The  reader  of  the  Book  of  Haggai  will  miss  all  seeming 
care  on  his  part  for  graces  of  style  or  elaboration  of  treat- 
Haggai:  ment ;  will  meet  with  no  striking  imagery  or 
Bearing  a  fervid  prophetic  vision.  On  the  other  hand,  he 
Ur^genfand  will  find  what  is  more  to  the  purpose  in  hand. 
Immediate  ^  lucid  directness  and  incisiveness  aimed  straight 
at  a  practical  object  and  counting  on  practical  and  concrete 
effect.  His  aim  was  single,  urgent,  immediate  :  to  rouse 
the  conscience  of  rulers  and  people  to  the  work  of  building 
the  Temple.  That  was  what  they  were  sent  home  from 
Babylon  to  do.  On  it  depended  their  national  idea  and 
perpetuity,  their  power  and  influence  in  the  world.  The 
response  to  his  appeal,  which  was  prompt  and  hearty, 
showed  how  true  a  heart  still  beat  in  the  bosom  of  the 
chosen  people.  "  No  prophet,"  says  Dr.  Marcus  Dods, 
"  ever  appeared  at  a  more  critical  juncture  in  the  history  of 
the  people,  and,  it  may  be  added,  no  prophet  was  more  suc- 
cessful." In  less  than  a  month  after  he  received  his  word 
from  Jehovah  he  had  the  rulers  and  the  people  at  work. 

In  all  Haggai's  prophecy  there  is  no  hint  of  what  had 
so  long  been  a  staple  of  prophetic  censure,  namely,  the 
insidious  blight  of  idolatry.  The  people  here  in  the  home- 
land were  well  purged  of  that  inveterate  obsession.  Their 
ordeal  of  exile,  now  so  happily  over,  had  left  them  sincerely 

[341] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

and  exclusively  loyal  to  their  fathers'  God  Jehovah.  And 
this  meant  much  ;  it  was  their  return,  after  long  discipline, 
to  the  old  ways  (cf.  Hag.  ii,  5  ;  Jer.  vi,  16).  But  with  this 
emancipation  secured,  and  with  unpropitious  conditions  trying 
their  faith,  new  tendencies  to  evil  were  creeping  in,  which 
the  keen  sense  of  prophecy  must  expose  and  deal  with. 
For  one  thing,  their  God  and  His  service  were  not  yet  a 
thing  confirmed  and  supreme.  They  were  postponing  His 
claims  to  their  own  convenience.  "This  people  say,  'The 
time  is  not  come  for  Jehovah's  house  to  be  built '  "  (i,  2), 
was  the  word  of  Jehovah  to  the  prophet,  which  he  in  turn 
reported  to  the  governor  and  the  high  priest,  now  the 
nation's  leaders.  They  had  indeed  their  excuse,  in  the  lean 
harvests  and  hard  conditions  of  living  (i,  6).  But  not  the 
people  alone,  or  mainly,  were  at  fault.  The  leaders  them- 
selves, the  men  of  means  and  influence,  were  more  cul- 
pably so.  "  Is  it  a  time  for  you  yourselves  to  dwell  in  your 
ceiled  houses,  while  this  house  lieth  waste  ?  "  (i,  4)  was  the 
prophet's  trenchant  question.  Here  was  the  beginning  of 
mischief.  It  has  been  suggested  that  they  had  used  the 
material  gathered  for  the  Temple  to  build  and  adorn  their 
own  houses.  Not  unlikely.  So  the  prophet's  repeated 
warning  is,  "Consider  your  ways"  (i,  5,  7).  They  had 
reversed  the  relations  of  things,  —  had  made  untoward  con- 
ditions a  pretext  instead  of  a  warning  and  lesson.  "Ye 
looked  for  much,  and,  lo,  it  came  to  little  ;  and  when  ye 
brought  it  home,  I  did  blow  upon  it.  Why  .-'  saith  Jehovah 
of  hosts.  Because  of  my  house  that  lieth  waste,  while  ye  run 
every  man  to  his  own  house  "  (i,  9).  It  was  a  conscience- 
awakening  word,  revealing  the  fact  that  poor  and  rich  alike 
were  not  for  necessity  but  for  mere  self-indulgence  putting 
off  the  claims  of  God  and  duty.  And  this  could  not  be 
allowed  to  vitiate  the  wholeness  and  genuineness  of  their 
new-found  faith.  The  unselfish  spirit  of  their  prophetic 
mission  was  at  stake, 

[342] 


LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

As   soon  as  the  response  to   Haggai's  appeal  came,  so 
prompt  and  practical,  the  prophet's  tone  changed  to  encour- 
agement and   promise.     The  reassurance  was  in 
Gleams  of  »  '  . 

the  Larger  truth  necessary  and  timely.  The  reconstructed 
Outlook  Temple  itself,  on  which  such  glowing  hopes  had 

been  founded,  must  survive  the  shrinkage  of  the  real  from  the 
ideal.  It  seemed,  as  soon  as  they  got  at  work,  an  insignifi  * 
cant  affair  as  compared  with  the  venerable  Solomonic  one, 
which  some  of  the  older  people  remembered  (ii,  3 ;  cf .  Ezra 
iii,  12).  "Yet  now  be  strong,"  was  the  prophet's  heartening 
word,  reiterated  to  one  and  all  (ii,  4) ;  and  went  on  to  predict 
that  the  promise  of  Isaiah  Ix,  4-9,  would  come  true  of  it» 
and  that  the  latter  glory  of  the  house  would  be  greater 
than  Jhe  former,  "and  in  this  place  will  I  give  peace,  saith 
Jehovah  of  hosts"  (ii,  9). 

Haggai's  prophecy,  as  has  been  said  of  all  this  closing 
strain  of  prophecy, ^  has  drawn  in  from  the  large  horizon 
of  the  Second  Isaiah  to  the  present  emergency  ;  and  yet 
he  adds  to  it  an  apocalyptic  touch,  which  leaves  the  pros- 
pect open,  as  it  were,  for  the  larger  and  limitless  view,  in 
his  prediction  that  Jehovah  is  soon  to  "shake  the  heavens, 
and  the  earth,  and  the  sea,  and  the  dry  land"  (ii,  6),  so 
that  the  precious  things  of  all  nations  shall  come  to  enhance 
the  glory  of  Jehovah's  house.  Like  all  apocalyptics  the  pre- 
diction is  a  foreshortened  vision,  and  his  idea  of  the  inter- 
mediate steps  thereto  is  vague,  not  to  say  in  some  ways 
erroneous.  He  couples  with  it,  for  instance,  a  promise  to 
Zerubbabcl  the  governor,  who  is  the  grandson  of  Jehoiachin, 
that  Jehovah  will  make  him  a  signet  as  His  chosen  one 
(ii,  23);  a  promise  which,  seeming  to  imply  the  resumption 
of  the  Davidic  dynasty,  conflicts  with  the  emphatic  proph- 
ecy uttered  by  Jeremiah  at  the  time  of  the  surrender  (see 
Jer.  xxii,  24,  30).  As  a  matter  of  history,  Zerubbabel  was 
succeeded  by  civic  governors  of  other  nations,  while  the  real 
1  See  above,  p.  340. 
[343] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

headship  of  Israel  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  high  priest. 
For  the  Davidic  Shepherd  and  Anointed  One  (Messiah) 
Israel  must  await  the  fullness  of  the  time  (cf.  Gal.  iv,  4), 
and  that  was  far  beyond   Haggai's  horizon. 

The  promise  of  a  glorified  Temple  connotes  a  law  and 
a  Temple  service  to  correspond.  Haggai  cannot  well  clinch 
"his  prophecy  without  an  intimation  of  this,  which  like  his 
other  utterances  strikes  close  home.  •  In  two  searching 
questions  to  the  priests  he  reverts  to  that  lurking  evil  of 
covetous  self-indulgence  which  has  brought  on  Jehovah's 
monitory  infliction  of  hard  times  (ii,  10-19).  From  their 
answers  he  deduces  the  lesson  that  while  the  bearing  of 
holy  things  does  not  purify  by  physical  contact,  uncleanness 
does  spread  an  evil  taint.  So  it  has  been  hitherto  ;  hence 
this  widespread  want  and  scarcity.  The  Temple  service  that 
shall  bring  the  blessing  must  be  unalloyed  and  pure,  and 
for  this,  from  the  very  foundation  of  the  house,  the  promised 
glory  must  wait.  "  Is  the  seed  yet  in  the  barn  ?  yea,  the  vine, 
and  the  fig-tree,  and  the  pomegranate,  and  the  olive-tree  have 
not  brought  forth  ;  from  this  day  will  I  bless  you  "  (ii,  19). 

Thus  with  heartening  assurance  of  success  on  the  one 
side  and  a  thinly  veiled  hint  of  moral  taint  and  drawback 
on  the  other,  Haggai's  downright  message  justifies  its  far- 
reaching  motive  and  principle. 

In  the  middle  of  Haggai's  work,  a  few  weeks  after  he 
had  predicted  the  shaking  of  the  nations  and  the  filling  of 
Jehovah's  house  with  wealth  and  glory  (ii,  6-9), 
Adding  New  another  prophet,  Zechariah,  began  a  series  of 
Visions  of  prophetic  utterances,  the  revelations  for  which 
were  grouped  under  three  dated  occasions  (see 
i,  I  ;  i,  7  ;  vii,  i),  the  last  being  in  the  fourth  year  of 
King  Darius,  namely,  518  b.c,  two  years  before  the  com- 
pleted edifice  was  dedicated.  His  activity  was  thus  con- 
temporary with  that  of  Haggai,  beginning  two  months  after 

[344] 


LITERARY  FRUITS  OF    THE  EXILE 

work  on  the  Temple  at  the  urgency  of  the  latter  was 
resumed  (cf.  Hag.  i,  15),  and  continuing  two  years  after 
Haggai's.  His  prophecies,  uttered  while  the  builders  ^vere 
zealously  at  work,  did  not  need  to  press  that  phase  of  the 
issue  ;  accordingly,  taking  it  for  granted,  he  dealt  with  the 
renovated  and  organized  period  that  would  follow,  a  matter 
which  he  brought  out  in  increasing  clearness  as  the  work 
went  on. 

Thus  by  wise  and  timely  team  work  these  two  postexilic 
prophets,  supplementing  each  other,  led  the  momentous 
enterprise  of  rebuilding  and  reinstatement  within  measurable 
sight  of  completion.  It  was  this  Temple,  we  will  remember, 
which,  known  to  us  as  the  Second  Temple,  was  the  center 
of  reorganized  worship  and  culture,  of  law  and  learning  and 
religious  administration,  until  near  the  coming  of  Jesus. 

Note.  In  both  Haggai  and  Zechariah  the  prophecies  are  recor4ed 
after  the  manner  of  Ezekiel  (see  above,  p.  260),  that  is,  by  the  dated 
order  of  time,  without  apparent  heed  to  its  bearing  on  logical  continuity. 
The  time  range  here,  however,  is  so  limited,  and  events  so  keep  pace 
with  dates,  that  (except  for  one  or  two  shght  dislocations  easily  corrected) 
the  two  books  move  in  lucid  and  orderly  progress. 

It  must  here  be  noted  that  in  considering  the  Book  of 
the  prophet  Zechariah  we  are  dealing  only  with  chapters  i 
to  viii,  as  constituting  a  homogeneous  whole.  The  succeed- 
ing chapters,  ix  to  xiv,  which  will  be  taken  up  in  the  next 
section,  can  be  clearly  understood  only  as  an  addition,  of 
other  authorship  and  time,  which  has  somehow  come  to  be 
incorporated  with  the  original  book  of  Zechariah's  proph- 
ecy and  which  goes  on  to  deal  with  more  distinctively 
apocalyptic  values. 

The  tone  of  Zechariah's  prophecy  is  much  more  con- 
ciliatory than  that  of  Haggai,  and  he  approaches  his  subject 
in  the  less  trenchant  and  more  literary  way  of  vision  and 
parable.  He  is  eminently  constructive  ;  taking  advantage 
of  all  the  signs  of  promise  that  can  be  gleaned  from  the 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

undeniably  poor  situation  in  which  his  people  find  them- 
selves, and  turning  these  to  hopeful  account.  "Who  hath 
6v  r-  despised  the  day  of  small  things?"  (iv,  lo)  —  such 
taking  Word  is  the  monition,  mixed  of  chiding  and  cheer,  which 
0  Je  ova  underlies  his  message  as  he  observes  leaders  and 
people  toiling  at  their  work  of  Temple  building  and  think- 
ing of  the  more  splendid  structure  of  the  old  time  which 
they  are  unable  to  restore  (cf.  Hag.  ii,  3,  4).  He  must 
make  them  aware  of  their  shortcomings,  but  he  must  ap- 
proach them  in  a  tempered  austerity.  They  seem  to  have 
lapsed,  in  a  too  worldly  spirit,  into  the  same  unfaith  in 
Jehovah's  word  as  had  been  the  inveterate  fault  of  their 
fathers  in  the  past  (i,  2-4).  Even  their  Temple-building 
zeal  has  not  cured  that.  His  tactful  introduction  (i,  1-6), 
accordingly,  reminds  them  that  the  ancient  word,  which 
though  apparently  so  slow  had  overtaken  their  fathers,  was 
still  as  vital  as  ever.  It  is  a  kind  of  echo,  as  it  were  a 
cadence,  fitted  to  a  less  imposing  occasion,  of  the  Second 
Isaiah's  more  impassioned  vindication  uttered  at  the  culmi- 
nation of  his  prophetic  vision  (Isa.  Iv,  8—1 1  ;  cf.  xl,  8).  In 
this  discouraging  time  the  people  need  to  know  that  the 
word  has  never  yet  been  known  to  fail.  It  had  so  "over- 
taken "  their  fathers  that  they  had  turned  and  confessed, 
"  Like  as  Jehovah  of  hosts  thought  to  do  unto  us,  accord- 
ing to  our  ways,  and  according  to  our  doings,  so  hath  he 
dealt  with  us." 

Three  months  after  this  introductory  message  was  given 

(i,  7)  the  word  of  Jehovah  which  came  to  Zechariah,  and 

which    makes   up   the    main    body   of   his   book 

Visions  ,.  .  ^       ,     .  .  -.      .    . 

Merging  in     (i)  7-vi,  15),  vvas  Set  forth  m  a  series  of  visions, 
Literal  eight  in  all,  of  coordinated  rea(;h  and  meaning. 

To  understand  the  prophet's  drift  in  these  visions, 
we  must  needs  consider  the  situation  of  things  in  the  gov- 
ernment. Five  months  before,  Haggai  had  spurred  rulers 
and  people  out  of  their  apathy  and  self-indulgence  to  build 

[  346  ] 


LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

their  Temple,  and  they  were  zealously  at  work  ;  but  they 
were  fresh  from  two  generations  of  captivity,  and  it  does 
not  appear  that  they  had  much  organization  either  civil  or 
religious.  These  visions  are  Zechariah's  parable  method  of 
meeting  this  undeveloped  state  of  things. 

The  visions  fall  into  two  groups  (namely,  i,  7-iii,  lo,  and 
iv,  i-vi,  15),  with  four  in  each,  the  prophet  making  transi- 
tion from  the  first  group  to  the  second  by  a  wakening  as 
it  were  out  of  sleep  (iv,  i).  Leading  up  to  and  down  from 
two  central  visions  wherein  respectively  Joshua  the  high 
priest  and  Zerubbabel  the  civil  governor  are  named  and 
instructed,  these  two  groups  of  parables  (or  realistic  pictures) 
are  the  prophet's  chosen  method  of  constructing  a  kind  of 
model  for  the  reorganized  commonwealth.  In  his  idea  it 
is  to  be  a  dual  government,  in  which  the  sacred  and  the 
secular  elements,  represented  by  these  two  men,  are  to  have 
cooperative  functions.  "These,"  his  informing  angel  says, 
"are  the  two  anointed  ones  that  stand  by  the  Lord  of  the 
whole  earth  "  (iv,  1 1-14). 

It  seems,  however,  that  in  the  course  of  these  prophetic 
visions  events  occur  which  change  the  immediate  outcome, 
making  it  less  concrete,  more  apocalyptic.  Broached  while 
the  civil  ruler  (Zerubbabel)  is  still  of  Jewish  race  and  in 
fact  a  lineal  heir  to  the  Davidic  throne,  they  seem  to  build 
too  premature  hopes  on  his  person  ;  for  as  it  turned  out 
he  soon  disappeared  from  history,  and  except  Nehemiah  no 
civil  governor  of  Jewish  race  succeeded  him.  He  is  assured 
of  living  till  the  Temple  is  finished  and  the  "  plummet "  is 
in  his  hands  (iv,  9,  10)  ;  but  when  memorial  crowns  are 
brought  forth  only  Joshua  is  named,  and  the  rulership  is 
somewhat  vaguely  attributed  to  "the  man  whose  name  is  the 
Branch  "  (vi,  12),  while  the  headship  of  the  state  is  sacred 
and  priestly  (cf.  vi,  13).  This  transition  from  dual  to  single, 
however,  is  essentially  of  the  prophetic  ideal.  The  center 
and  main  significance  of  the  state  is  in  the  Temple  now 

[347] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

rebuilding ;  its  basic  principle,  as  urged  upon  Zerubbabel 
himself,  not  military  nor  political  but  spiritual.  "  Not  by 
might,  nor  by  power,  but  by  my  Spirit,  saith  Jehovah  of 
hosts "  (iv,  6).  The  prophet  is  thus  minded,  while  not 
ignoring  civic  obligations,  to  make  the  distinctive  ideals  of 
the  sanctuary  the  dominant  principle  of  the  reorganized  state. 
This  we  may  regard  as  the  keynote  of  his  prophetic  message. 

Note.  TJie  Range  of  Zee  ha  ti ah'' s  Jlsions.  As  above  remarked,  the 
eight  visions  —  or  pictured  scenes  —  of  Zechariah  fall  into  two  groups 
of  four  each;  the  first  group  (i,  7-iii,  lo)  leading  up  to  Joshua  and  his 
function  in  the  enlarged  state,  the  second  group  (iv,  i-vi,  8)  pairing 
Zerubbabel  with  him  and  leading  down  through  civic  ideals  to  the 
starting-point.  There  is  thus  a  kind  of  concatenation  in  the  whole  range 
of  visions.    Note  the  series  in  their  order. 

A.    First  Group,  leading  up  through  prophetic  symbols  to  Joshua 

1 .  The  man  in  the  myrtle-tree  grove,  who  with  horses  has  traversed 
the  earth  and  finds  it  everywhere  at  rest.  Meant  perhaps  as  a  gentle 
corrective  to  Haggai's  prediction,  uttered  four  months  previously  (Hag.  ii, 
6-8),  that  Jehovah  would  soon  shake  the  earth  and  cause  all  sorts  of 
prosperity  to  flow  into  the  rebuilt  house;  but  going  on  to  report  Jeho- 
vah's anger  at  the  general  supineness  of  the  nations  (i,  1 5),  and  the 
awaking  of  Jehovah's  zeal  for  the  welfare  and  mission  of  Zion.    i,  7-17. 

2.  The  horns,  — alien  powers,  —  which  heretofore  have  scattered 
Judah.  Israel,  and  Jerusalem,  and  the  smiths  appointed  to  terrify  and 
demolish  them,  —  as  if  clearing  the  way  for  Israel's  larger  and  freer 
destiny,    i,  i  8-21. 

3.  The  man  with  the  measuring  line,  come  to  measure  Jerusalem 
for  walls,  but  peremptorily  forbidden  because  any  walls  whatever  will 
eventually  be  too  small  to  contain  her  enlargement  and  prosperity.  — 
Used,  along  with  the  preceding,  to  call  in  those  who  dwell  yet  "  with 
the  daughter  of  Babylon  "  to  escape  her  lures  and  cast  in  their  lot  with 
their  regenerated  homeland,    ii,  1-13. 

4.  The  Satan  seen  standing  at  the  right  hand  of  Joshua  the  high 
priest,  to  be  his  adversary.  For  thus  maligning  "  a  brand  plucked  out 
of  the  fire"  he  is  sternly  rebuked  by  Jehovah;  but  Joshua,  in  turn, 
who  is  clothed  in  filthy  garments,  is  reclothed  in  clean  priestly  apparel 
and  insignia.  —  Used  as  occasion  to  impress  upon  Joshua  his  high 
responsibilities  and  to  appoint  him  and  his  colleagues  as  a  sign  of  holier 

[348] 


LITERARy  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

things :  "  for  behold,  I  will  bring  forth  my  servant  the  Branch,"  who 
in  one  day  will  purge  the  land  from  its  iniquity  and  insure  an  era  of 
prosperous  peace,    iii,  i-io. 

B.    Second  Group,  bringing  p7-otnise  to  the  cii'ic  ruler  Zcnibbabel, 
and  going  on  to  give  civic  and  efltical  symbols 

5.  The  golden  candlestick  with  its  seven  lamps  fed  through  seven 
pipes  from  two  olive  trees  growing  at  the  right  hand  and  at  the  left. 
Used  as  symbol  of  the  two  anointed  ones,  sacred  and  civic  agencies  of 
Jehovah's  essentially  spiritual  work,  but  directed  especially  to  Zerub- 
babel,  whose  mission  is  to  be  accomplished  not  by  material  but  by 
spiritual  means,  and  who  will  finish  what  his  hands  have  begun,     iv. 

6.  The  huge  flying  roll,  sent  forth  over  the  face  of  the  whole  land 
as  the  "curse"  —  or  mentor  —  to  unearth  and  consume  theft  and  per- 
jury wherever  these  hide  themselves.  A  suggestive  symbol,  valid  to-day, 
of  the  penetrative  and  purifying  power  of  literature  as  a  factor  for 
good.    V,  1-4. 

7.  The  hag  wickedness,  imprisoned  in  the  barrel  (ephah),  weighted 
down  with  a  leaden  disk  (talent),  and  borne  forth  by  two  women  out 
of  the  Holy  Land  to  the  land  of  Shinar,  where  Babylon  is  and  where 
is  her  own  fitting  place.  A  symbol  of  the  banishment  of  business 
fraud.    V,  5-1 1. 

8.  The  chariots  and  horses,  symbols  of  the  four  winds  of  heaven, 
sent  forth  to  and  fro  through  the  earth,  and  reporting  the  appeasement 
of  Jehovah's  spirit  in  the  north  country.  It  is  as  if  here  the  series  of 
visions  were  closed  with  the  promise  of  solution,  as  an  offset  to  the 
beginning  (cf.  ii,  i  i-i  5)  when  Jehovah's  anger  was  roused  by  the  apathy 
of  the  nations,    vi,  1-7. 

A  historical  supplement,  however,  follows  this  last  vision,  in  which 
supplement  the  prophet  is  directed  to  make  crowns  out  of  silver  and 
gold  brought  by  a  deputation  from  Babylon,  and  set  them  upon  the 
head  of  Joshua,  but  instead  of  naming  also  Zerubbabel  (who  seems  to 
have  disappeared)  the  prophet  puts  in  his  place  "  the  man  whose  name 
is  the  Branch."  These  crowns  arc  then  to  be  laid  up  as  memorials  in 
the  rebuilt  Temple,    vi,  9-15. 

Thus  these  visions  of  Zechariah,  opening  comforting  out- 
looks to  suit  "the  day  of  small  things"  (cf.  iv,  10),  enlarge 
their  scope  to  take  in  the  Messianic  values  predicted  two 
generations  before  by  Jeremiah,  whose  presage  of  the  "  right- 
eous   Branch  "    and    his   beneficent  reign   (Jcr.   xxiii,    5-8  ; 

[  349  ] 


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» 
xxxiii,  15-18),  strengthened  later  by  Ezekiel  and  the  Second 

Isaiah,  is  taken  as  an  assured  truth  of  prophetic  foresight, 

which  these  narrower   conditions   do   not  avail   to   dim   or 

make  uncertain. 

Two  years  after  Zechariah  had  brought  his  cheering  visions 

to  his  people,  a  deputation  from  Bethel  came  to  the  Temple 

Fasting  Cus-  to   lay  before    the    priests   and    the    prophets   a 

toms  of  the     question  about  fasting.     The  custom  of  fasting 

Exile  Yield-     ,      ,   ,  ,,?,,...  ,      .  , 

ing  to  the  had  bccome  an  established  institution  during  the 
Vital  Issue  seventy  years  of  the  captivity  ;  it  and  the  observ- 
ance of  the  sabbath  seem  to  have  been  the  only  general 
forms  of  organized  religious  custom  open  to  the  Jews  in 
the  foreign  land.^  But  in  the  prophetic  ideal  fasting  was 
subject  to  grave  abuses  ,  it  was  not  according  to  the  spirit 
that  the  prophets  were  minded  to  cultivate  in  Israe!.  It 
was  essentially  a  separative  act,  self-regarding  (vii,  5,  6), 
mindful  only  of  past  afflictions  and  wrongs,  tending  to  draw 
away  a  man's  regards  from  the  welfare  and  fellowship  of 
his  neighbor.  The  Second  Isaiah  had  already  corrected  this 
tendency  to  exclusiveness  which  the  fasting  custom  pro- 
moted, and  had  emphasized  the  same  better  way  which 
Zechariah  now  inculcates  (see  Isa.  Iviii,  i-ii).  That  better 
way  was  the  way  of  tolerance,  mercy,  neighborliness,  benefi- 
cence ;  and  this  was  not  consistent  with  the  mournful  and 
ascetic  spirit  connoted  by  fasting.  To  this  latter  spirit  the 
people  were  already  too  prone  ;  they  had  let  the  exile  harden 
them  not  only  against  other  nations  but  against  their  own 
less  fortunate  neighbors  and  sojourners  (vii,  ii,  12). 

Accordingly  the  prophet  takes  occasion  of  this  deputation's 
inquiry  not,  indeed,  to  legislate  either  for  the  regulation  or 
abolition  of  the  custom  but  to  inculcate  such  a  genial  spirit 
of  tolerance,  compassion,  and  brotlierlv  kindness  as  would 
virtually  supersede  all  fasting  austerities,  turning  them  into 
occasions  of  joy  and  cheerful  feasts  (vii,  8-10  ;  viii,  18,  19). 

^  See  above,  p.  328. 
[350] 


LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

If  they  would  keep  their  custom,  let  it  be  a  hopeful  and 
upbuilding  one.  "  Thus  saith  Jehovah  of  hosts  :  '  The  fast 
of  the  fourth  month,  and  the  fast  of  the  fifth,  and  the  fast 
of  the  seventh,  and  the  fast  of  the  tenth,  shall  be  to  the 
house  of  Judah  joy  and  gladness,  and  cheerful  feasts  ;  there- 
fore love  truth  and  peace  '  "  (viii,  19). 

Thus,  adapting  itself  to  "the  day  of  small  things," 
Zechariah's  body  of  prophecy  is  like  taking  Isaiah  Ivi  to 
Ixvi  with  its  cosmic  and  universal  reference  and  translating 
it  into  terms  suited  to  Jerusalem  and  the  recovered  home- 
land. In  doing  so  his  appeal  is  to  the  spiritual  values  which 
alone  can  make  Judah  great  (cf.  iv,  6) ;  and  like  the  earlier 
prophets  he  takes  his  stand  uncompromisingly  on  that  com- 
mon and  as  it  were  domestic  righteousness  which  witnesses 
to  Jehovah's  will  by  sincere  justice  to  and  love  of  neighbor 
as  exerted  to  the  humblest  and  most  needy.  It  is  his  gentler 
way  of  correcting  the  bad  tendencies  against  which  Haggai 
so  bluntly  contended,  and  setting  up  a  constructive  impulse 
in  character  to  match  their  newly  awakened  constructive  zeal 
for  their  Temple.  The  ancient  word  of  Jehovah  has  indeed 
"  overtaken  "  them.  "  Should  ye  not  hear  the  words  which 
Jehovah  cried  by  the  former  prophets,  when  Jerusalem  was 
inhabited  and  in  prosperity,  and  the  cities  thereof  round 
about  her,  and  the  South  and  the  lowland  were,  inhabited  ?  .  .  . 
Thus  hath  Jehovah  of  hosts  spoken,  saying,  '  Execute  true 
judgment,  and  show  kindness  and  compassion  every  man 
to  his  brother  ;  and  oppress  not  the  widow,  nor  the  father- 
less, the  sojourner,  nor  the  poor ;  and  let  none  of  you 
devise  evil  against  his  brother  in  your  heart'"  (vii,  7-10). 
It  is  the  ideal  that  men  like  Ezekiel  have  planned  and 
prepared  for  (cf.  Ezek.  xviii,  8  ;  xlv,  9),  the  true  law  of 
the  rebuilt  Temple. 

With  such  a  foundation  laid,  the  rest  of  Zechariah's 
prophecy  can  let  itself  go  in  pure  blessing  and  promise,  a 
summarizing  climax  of  heartening  presage.    Prefacing  each 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

prediction  with  the  reiterated  "Thus  saith  Jehovah  of  hosts," 
he  leads  his  book  up  to  its  culmination  (and  perhaps  that  of 
A  Prophetic  Old  Testament  prophecy),  in  the  eighth  chapter, 
Decalogue  by  ^  progressive  series  of  ten  prophetic  words, 
in  which,  as  it  were,  he  domesticates  the  vision  of  Isaiah 
in  the  home  city  and  land.  The  most  touching  of  these 
predictions,  perhaps,  is  the  idyllic  picture  he  draws,  in  viii, 
4,  5,  of  the  Jerusalem  that  is  some  day  to  be.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  when  the  Jews  returned  from  exile  to 
the  toils  and  hardships  of  a  repatriated  homeland,  only 
the  hardy  and  middle-aged  could  stand  the  journey  and 
settlement ;  the  dearth  of  the  very  young  and  the  very  old 
was  a  saddening  feature  of  the  return.  What  blessing  could 
be  greater  than  to  have  these  again  in  a  restored  social  en- 
vironment .''  "  Thus  saith  Jehovah  of  hosts,  '  There  shall 
yet  old  men  and  old  women  dwell  in  the  streets  of  Jeru- 
salem, every  man  wnth  his  staff  in  his  hand  for  very  age. 
And  the  streets  of  the  city  shall  be  full  of  boys  and  girls 
playing  in  the  streets  thereof.'  "  To  such  a  normal  social 
make-up  the  austerity  of  ritual  fasting  is  incongruous  and 
irrelevant  (viii,  i8,  19).  Nor  will  such  a  city  be  any  more 
a  self-centered  and  exclusive  place  ;  its  attractiveness  for  all 
nations,  and  its  kindly  hospitality,  will  realize  the  consum- 
mation with  which  long  ago  the  dreams  of  Isaiah  and  Micah 
began  and  which  the  Second  Isaiah  wrought  into  the  Jewish 
redemptive  spirit  (viii,  23  ;  cf.  Isa.  ii,  2-4  =  Mic.  iv,  1-5  ; 
Ix,  14,  15). 

II 

The  Subsidence  of  Prophecy.  Comparison  of  Zechariah's 
word  with  that  of  the  other  literary  prophets  seems  to  reveal 
the  fact  that  with  him  and  his  time  the  momentous  pro- 
phetic movement,  active  and  strenuous  since  the  days  of 
Amos  and  Hosea,i  is  nearing  its  close.    Its  long  fight  with 

^  Joel  also,  in  my  view;  see  above,  pp.  143-147. 

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LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

the  corruptions  and  iniquities  of  idolatry  is  over  ;  and  the 
impassioned  warnings  and  promises  it  has  infused  into  the 
people's  mind  remain  as  vital  as  ever,  an  undying  element 
of  the  nation's  permanent  literature.  Zechariah's  words, 
saying  little  about  either  the  fight  or  the  far  triumph  of 
spiritual  forces,  yet  eminently  encouraging  and  constructive, 
are  like  a  kind  of  cadence,  preparing  for  the  pause  where 
a  new  strain  of  thought  and  sentiment  may  begin.  The 
impulsive  effort  of  prophecy  must  be  succeeded  by  the 
orderly  and  steadying  regime  of  law.  The  rebuilt  Temple 
and  the  visions  of  an  organized  government  are  the  signs 
of  this.  So  from  Zechariah's  time  on,  literary  prophecy  has 
little  more  to  say.  Two  more  prophetic  books  remain  to  be 
considered,  both  seeming  to  be  anonymous,  and  these,  while 
containing  important  and  vivid  oracles,  yet  are  like  a  kind 
of  subsidence,  largely  apocalyptic  in  nature,  letting  the  pro- 
phetic attitude  down  to  a  habit  of  calm  expectancy,  while 
the  more  prosaic  and  matter-of-fact  affairs  of  the  repatriated 
nation  go  on  their  way. 

It  has  been  remarked  above  ^  that  our  exposition  of  the 

Book  of  Zechariah  included  only  chapters  i  to  viii.     That 

section  of  the   book,  as  we  have  seen,   is  quite 
Anonymous     ,  .       ,        •  ,  ,   . 

Oracles  homogeneous  m  theme  and  treatment,  and  is  put 

Appended  to  jj^  (-he  prophet's  name.  All  belongs  to  a  definitelv 
Zechariah  .  \  ^ 

specified  time  and  to  clearly  discernible  conditions. 

What  follows,  however,  —  namely,  chapters  ix  to  xiv,  —  is 

of  very  different  character.   Without  giving  author  or  date,  it 

purports  in  general  to  communicate  two  burdens,  or  oracles, 

"  of  the  word  of  Jehovah  "  :  one  (chapters  ix  to  xi)  seeming 

meant   not  only  for   Israel   but   for  the  world   at   large  as 

thought  of  in  Jewish  terms  ;  the  other  (chapters  xii  to  xiv) 

dealing  with    certain   obscure  and   turbulent   yet   eventuallv 

victorious    destinies    of    Israel    itself.     No    clear    result,    as 

^  See  above,  p.  345. 
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.      GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

regards  either  style  or  substance,  comes  from  attributing 
these  chapters  to  the  pen  or  the  restricted  time  of  Zechariah ; 
nor  indeed  do  scholars  agree  on  any  time  before  'or  after  the 
exile  that  can  be  certainly  verified  from  known  events.  They 
seem,  indeed,  like  the  concluding  chapters  of  Isaiah,  to 
belong  to  some  era  independent  of  historical  annals.  On 
the  whole,  so  far  as  their  prophetic  tissue  is  colored  by 
time  at  all,  they  seem  to  reflect  an  age  considerably  later 
than  Zechariah,  an  age  wherein  a  momentous  apocalyptic 
solution  of  things  is  drawing  nigh.  It  is  thought  by  scholars 
that  these  •  chapters  were  a  kind  of  prophetic  waif  which, 
when  the  so-called  "  Book  of  the  Twelve  "  ^  was  made  up 
for  the  Scripture  canon,  was  appended  to  the  last  of  the 
named  prophets,  the  Book  of  Zechariah. 

It  must  not  be  inferred,  however,  that  this  section  of 
our  book   is  of   subordinate  importance  or  merely  a  stray 

incident  of  prophetic  utterance.  Rather,  its  rela- 
Gieams  of  tion  to  the  body  of  literary  prophecy  is  intimate 
the  Coming     ^j^kJ    cardinal.      It    strikes    consistently    into    the 

large  divine  outlook ;  only,  it  is  farther  along 
the  line,  over  the  nearer  horizon  as  it  were,  where  not 
specific  events  but  religious  and  cultural  conditions  fill  the 
field  of  vision.  Those  conditions,  though  real  and  grounded, 
are  to  an  extent  shadowy  and  confused ;  it  is  as  if  the 
prophet,  schooled  in  the  concepts  of  his  time  and  race, 
lacked  terms  to  make  his  vision  real  and  literal  in  terms 
of  the  later  era.  Hence  the  inevitable  obscurity  of  his 
utterance.  In  Wordsworth's  poetic  phrasing  he  is 
Moving  about  in  worlds  not  realized. 

He  has  the  mental  impression  of  an  order  strange  to  his 
habitual    conceptions,    like   a   shimmering   background,    on 

1  In  the  Jewish  make-up  what  we  call  the  "minor  prophets"  (Hosea 
to  Malachi)  were  grouped  as  a  single  Scripture  book  and  designated  as 
"the  Book  of  the  Twelve."  See  G.  A.  Smith,  "The  Book  of  the  Twelve 
Prophets"  (Expositor's  Bible),  Vol.  I,  pp.  3,  4. 

[354] 


LITERARY   FRUITS  OF  THE   EXILE 

which  here  and  there  gleam  out  things  more  \  isuahzed  and 
concrete,  which  give  solidity  and  meaning  to  the  general 
spectacle.  What  situation,  what  movement  of  prophetic 
forms,  lies  thus  displayed  before  him  ? 

I  think  the  conditions  which  on  the  whole  best-  answer 
to  the  prophet's  vision  are  those  leading  up  to  and  sur- 
rounding the  advent  of  the  Messianic  king.  In  other  words, 
it  is  the  Christian  order  and  era,  with  glimpses  of  the  way 
in  which  it  is  apprehended  and  treated.  The  Messianic  king, 
now  for  the  first  time  so  called,  —  his,  in  fact,  is  the  figure 
most  concretely  portrayed  (ix,  9,  10),  and  so  remarkably 
so  that  the  description  is  taken  up  by  a  New  Testament 
writer  and  identified  with  our  Lord's  triumphal  entry  into 
Jerusalem  at  his  final  appearance  there  (cf.  Matt,  xxi,  4,  5). 
This  makes  the  prophetic  situation  distinctively  Messianic. 
Other  touches  seem  to  reveal  in  almost  clairvoyant  vividness 
dramatic  moments  in  Jesus'  career,  especially  as  related  to 
men's  reception  of  him.  We  may  instance  the  passage 
about  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver,  xi,  12,  13  (cf.  Matt,  xxvi, 
14,  15  ;  xxvii,  3-5);  also  the  passage  about  looking  upon 
him  whom  men  have  pierced,  xii,  10  (cf.  John  xix,  34-37). 
These  gleams  of  concrete  acts,  however,  like  things  in  a 
psychic's  dream,  are  only  imperfectly  coordinated  to  a 
lucid  and  verifiable  historic  tissue.  The  prophet's  vision  is 
still  in  the  glamor  of  apocalypse,  not  yet  literal  prediction. 

Enough  is  made  definite  and  positive,  however,  to  show 
that  what  the  prophet  has  at  the  back  of  his  mind  is  the 
difficult  reconcilement  of  a  reluctant  people  to 
Way  to  a  the  light  and  virtue  of  an  essentially  Christian 
Hard-Won  order.  The  method  of  his  utterance  is  admittedly 
obscure,  for  the  vision  extends  beyond  his  horizon. 
What  he  dreams  of,  in  fact,  is  merely  Judaism  raised  to  an 
ideal  power.  Rut  that  indeed  is  what  Christianity  in  its 
time  set  out  to  be  ;  that  was  the  legitimate  aim  and  service 
of  prophecy. 

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Let  us  trace  some  of  the  stages  in  the  prophet's  idea. 

I.  In  his  oracle  on  the  nations  (ix-xi)  he  puts  himself 
at  a  period  when  the  peoples  adjoining  Palestine  to  north 
and  west  are  united  with  Jehovah's  people  in  the  same 
privilege  and  protection  from  alien  invasion  and  oppression. 
Here  he  announces  to  "  the  daughter  of  Zion  "  the  coming 
of  her  king ;  whose  royal  progress  is  described  not  in  terms 
of  splendor  but  in  a  character  modeled  on  the  idea  of  the 
lowly  yet  prevailing  Servant  of  Jehovah,  as  we  have  seen 
him  portrayed  in  Second  Isaiah  (ix,  9,  10  ;  cf.  Isa.  xlii,  1-4; 
xlix,  7).  His  entry  is  spiritual,  the  advent  of  justice,  good- 
will, salvation  ;  and  this  is  the  type  of  the  regime  that  is 
up  for  men's  acceptance  or  rejection.  His  coming  is  fol- 
lowed by  the  emancipation  of  the  "  prisoners  of  hope " 
from  "the  pit  wherein  is  no  water"  (ix,  11,  12),  and  by 
what  reads  like  a  battle  of  world  cultures  between  the  two 
great  spiritual  forces  of  the  world.  '"  I  will  stir  up  thy 
sons,  O  Zion,  against  thy  sons,  O  Greece,  and  will  make 
thee  as  the  sword  of  a  mighty  man  "  (ix,  13).  This,  as  we 
know,  has  been  the  great  conflict  of  ages  ;  modern  times 
have  expressed  it  as  the  struggle  between  Hebraism  and 
Hellenism. 1  In  this  conflict  both  Judah  and  Ephraim, 
shoulder  to  shoulder,  will  rise  to  enhanced  strength  and 
valor  ;  the  dispersed  ones,  too,  will  be  brought  home  from 
the  nations  where  they  have  been  scattered,  to  walk  in  the 
strength  and  safety  of  a  reunited  people. 

Here,  however,  from  the  presage  of  the  issue  the  prophet's 
thoughts  return  to  the  arduous  way  thereto,  with  its  sad 
lack  of  response  and  appreciation.  There  are  infirmities 
and  perversities  to  be  encountered,  as  would  be  natural  in 
so   great  a    revolution.     This   is   symbolized    by   Jehovah's 

^  Readers  will  hardly  need  to  he  reminded  of  Matthew  Arnold's  "  Culture 
and  Anarchy  "  (especially  chapter  iv),  in  which  with  a  keen  yet  one-sided 
view  of  the  Hebrew  mind  he  pleads  for  the  less  austere  and  more  cultured 
Hellenism,  —  a  critical  judgment  that  has  had  enormous  influence  in  our  day. 

[356] 


LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

dealing  with  the  "shepherds,"  who  in  prophetic  parlance 
are  the  acknowledged  cultural  leaders  of  Israel,  and  who, 
as  already  prophesied,  are  to  be  replaced  by  a  supreme 
Shepherd. 1  Their  proneness  to  heathen  divinations  and 
futilities  have  left  shepherdless  the  people  chosen  to  prevail 
(x,  2,  3)  ;  so  Jehovah  is  minded  to  provide  means  to  feed 
"the  flock  of  slaughter,  whose  possessors  slay  them,  .  .  . 
and  their  own  shepherds  pity  them  not  "  (xi,  4,  5).  To  this 
end  the  prophet,  in  a  passage  of  allegory,  identifies  himself 
with  the  true  shepherd,  and  essays  to  feed  and  guard  the 
flock.  He  takes  two  staves  for  the  purpose,  which  he  names 
"  Beauty  "  and  "  Bands  "  (or,  as  our  abstract  idiom  might 
put  it,  "Grace"  and  "Unity"),  —  the  saving  cultural  virtues 
of  an  educated  people.  But  his  endeavors  are  soon  baffled. 
Only  the  poor  of  the  flock  sensed  his  valuable  service  when 
he  expelled  the  extortionate  shepherds  ;  so  he  had  to  break 
the  staff  of  Grace  ;  and  when,  feeling  his  service  done  and 
despised,  he  called  for  his  wages,  he  received  only  the 
paltry  hire  of  a  slave,  whereat  he  broke  the  second  staff 
(Unity),  "  that  I  might  break  the  brotherhood  between 
Judah  and  Israel  "  (xi,  7-14).  This  allegory  was  later  as- 
sociated with  the  Judas  episode  in  the  betrayal  and  rejec- 
tion of  Jesus  (see  Matt,  xxvii,  9,  10);  it  should  be  noted  that 
the  passage  there  quoted  (xi,  13)  is  attributed  to  Jeremiah. 
After  this  allegory  of  contempt  the  prophet,  taking  them 
according  to  their  desert,  assumes  "  the  instruments  of  a 
foolish  shepherd,"  and  leaving  them  thus  to  the  mercy  of 
what  they  desire,  predicts  the  coming  of  one  who  will  neglect 
their  welfare  and  feed  himself  from  their  fatness  ;  his  final 
denunciation  being,  "  Woe  to  the  worthless  shepherd  that 
leaveth  the  flock  !  "  (xi,  15-17).  The  great  danger  to  their 
cultural  prosperity,  after  all,  is  from  their  choice  of  and 
affinity  with  false  and  greedy  leaders  ;  the  true  leader  must 
survive  only  as  the  ultimate  fittest  and  best. 

^  See  above,  pp.  272,  273. 
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GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

2.  In  the  oracle  concerning  Israel  (xii-xiv)  the  prophet's 
regards  are  centered  in  Jerusalem,  as  the  capital  and  type 
of  the  matured  and  dynamic  influence  of  Israel,  a  city  des- 
tined by  the  all-Creator  who  "  formeth  the  spirit  of  man 
within  him"  to  be  "a  cup  of  reeling"  and  "a  stone  of 
burden"  for  all  the  peoples  round  about  as  they  gather 
together  in  the  siege  against  Jerusalem.  It  is  a  picture 
very  different  from  that  of  Isaiah  Ix,  infinitely  broader  than 
Haggai's  restricted  Temple  vision  (Hag.  ii,  6-9),  yet  in  the 
same  line  of  spiritual  evolution.  In  drawing  it  the  prophet 
avails  himself  of  well-seasoned  prophetic  symbols.  The  figure 
of  intoxication  is  used  by  Jeremiah  to  describe  the  effects  of 
Babylonian  culture  on  the  nations,  Israel  included  (Jer.  li,  7), 
and,  indeed,  he  has  anticipated  our  prophet  in  this  idea  as 
applied  to  Israel's  similar  agency  (Jer.  xxv,  15-17).  The 
stone  has  figured  in  Isaiah  as  "a  stone  of  stumbling" 
(Isa.  viii,  14)  and  a  foundation  corner  stone  (xxviii,  16), 
but  its  effects  are  for  Israel  itself  ;  here  in  Zechariah  it  is 
a  stone  of  burden  heavy  and  grievous  for  alien  nations  to 
handle,  —  "all  that  burden  themselves  with  it  shall  be  sore 
wounded  "  (xii,  3).  The  ideas  thus  taken  up  and  reapplied 
have  been  gathering  head  ever  since  the  beginning  of  the 
prophetic  movement ;  we  trace  its  germs  in  Isaiah's  redeem- 
ing remnant  (Isa.  x,  20),  in  the  scion  of  Jesse  (xi,  10; 
xlix,  22),  onward  to  the  prevailing  mission  of  the  collective 
Servant  of  Jehovah  (xli,  15,  16).  It  is  the  idea  that  Israel 
is  destined  to  be  a  kind  of  spiritual  touchstone,  a  highly 
charged  cultural  force,  which  the  world  will  cope  with  at 
its  bliss  or  peril.  I  have  already  noted  it  in  connection 
with  Ezekiel's  oracles  on  the  nations  who  rejoiced  at  or 
profited  by  Israel's  calamity.^  The  same  idea  reappears  in 
connection  with  our  Lord's  life  and  ministry  (see  Luke  ii,  34  ; 
Matt,  xxi,  44).  Here  in  Zechariah  it  is  rather  rudimentally 
sensed ;   but  the  prophet  seems  to  feel  a  Messianic  power, 

1  See  above,  p.  271. 
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LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

not  confined  to  an  individual  Personage  but  residing  in  a 
regenerate  commonwealth  of  which'  a  renewed  Jerusalem  is 
the  type,  I  regard  it  as  a  dim  presage  of  the  power  of 
Christian  vigor  and  culture.  It  is  on  this  conception  of 
the  matter,  I  think,  that  the  meaning  of  this  difficult  oracle 
opens  most  lucidly. 

What  the  prophet  is  aware  of,  however,  is  not  so  much 
an  accomplished  end  as  a  process.  In  a  Jerusalem  that 
could  let  its  true  leader  labor  in  vain  and  would  take  up 
with  a  foolish  and  worthless  shepherd  (xi,  15,  17)  there 
must  be  siege  and  sifting,  there  must  be  assimilation  of 
new  elements,  there  must  be  fiery  assay  as  of  silver  and 
gold  (xiii,  9).  The  rest  of  the  oracle  is  concerned  with 
various  aspects  of  this  experience.  In  the  siege  that  occurs, 
wherein  Judah  is  at  first  wavering  (xii,  2),  there  seems  to 
be  a  new  segmentation  of  the  people,  as  it  were  between 
the  classes  and  the  populace  ;  the  former,  ""  the  chieftains 
of  Judah,"  coming  to  depend  more  upon  "the  inhabitants 
of  Jerusalem,"  while  the  latter,  identified  largely  with  "  the 
house  of  David,"  increase  in  strength  and  godlikeness  to 
a  victorious  power.  Then  follows  the  "'  spirit  of  grace  and 
supplication,"  and  bitter  mourning,  as  the  inhabitants  of 
Jerusalem  look  upon  ""  him  whom  they  have  pierced "  ^ 
(xii,  10-14).  Following  on  this  is  "a  fountain  opened  to  the 
house  of  David  and  to  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  for  sin 
and  uncleanness."  The  effect  of  this  is  that  the  inveterate 
idolatrous  infection  of  Israel  is  purged  away  and  forgotten 
(xiii,  2)  ;  and  with  it  goes  even  the  professional  prophecy 
which  has  long  perverted  public  opinion,  —  its  practitioners 
discredited  by  their  own  kin  and  ashamed  of  themselves  as 
they  think  how  it^  has  enslaved  them  (xiii,  3-5).  The  era 
of  guesswork  is  over  ;  a  larger  fulfillment  is  in  sight ;  the 
time  is  evidently  ripe  for  "  the  subsidence  of  prophecy." 

^  Or  "  w^  whom  they  have  pierced"  (xii,  10)  identified,  as  also  in  the 
final  act  of  deHverance  (xiv,  3,  4),  with  Jehovah  himself. 

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But  the  shepherd,  —  what  of  him  ?  The  prophet  who 
essayed  the  task  had  to  break  the  staves  of  Beauty  and 
Bands  (Grace  and  Unity),  the  symbols  of  the  true  atmos- 
phere of  culture,  and  a  worthless  shepherd  has  had  sway. 
The  sword  is  here  invoked  against  the  true  Shepherd,  "  the 
man  that  is  my  fellow,  saith  Jehovah  of  hosts  "  ;  he  must 
be  smitten  and  the  sheep  scattered  ;  a  sad  negative,  it  would 
seem,  to  what  the  Second  Isaiah  so  unconditionally  announced 
(xiii,  7  ;  cf.  Isa.  xl,  ii).  The  sequel  is  a  further  reduction 
of  the  saved  to  a  surviving  third  part,  who  in  turn  are 
purified  by  furnace,  like  the  most  precious  ore.  The  ultimate 
assay  of  regenerate  character  must  be  radical  and  complete. 

In    a    final    apocalyptic    passage    of    great    sublimity    the 

denouement  is  ushered   in,  —  no  new  idea,  but  a  detailed 

^^    ^,  iteration  of  what  has  been  the  crowning  feature 

The  Denoue-  ° 

ment:  when  of  the  Isaian  vision.  After  all  the  confusions 
Jehovah  ^^^   bafflements   of   human    mind    and    conduct. 

Field  in  Jehovah  takes  the  field  in  person.     "And  Jeho- 

erson  ^.^|^  shall  be  King  over  all  the  earth  :   in  that  day 

shall  Jehovah  be  one,  and  his  name  one  "  (xiv,  9),  One's 
thoughts  go  back  to  prophecies  like  Isaiah  xxviii,  21  ; 
xli,  28  ;  1,  2  ;  lix,  16  ;  Ixiii,  5  ;  wherein  man's  utter  failure 
was  God's  supreme  occasion.  In  the  passage  before  us  this 
prophecy  is  wrought  out  to  its  final  expression, 

A  decisive  siege  and  sack  of  Jerusalem,  accompanied  by 
the  hideous  atrocities  of  ruthless  war,  is  the  introduction. 
Then  Jehovah,  entering  the  conflict,  takes  his  stand  on  the 
mount  of  Olives  over  against  the  city  ;  and  forthwith  the 
mountain  is  cleft  in  twain,  opening  a  great  valley  to  east 
and  west,  through  which  his  rescued  ones  escape.  There 
follows  on  this  a  strange  day,  like  a  kind  of  twilight,  iti 
which  things  are  dim  and  undefined  ;  "  but  it  shall  come 
to  pass  that  at  evening  time  there  shall  be  light"  (xiv,  7), 
Then  Ezekiel's  vision  of  living  waters  is  repeated  (see 
Ezek.  xlvii,  1-12);  only  now,  instead  of  flowing  merely  from 

[  -.60  1 


LITERARY   FRUITS  OF  THE   EXILE 

the  Temple  to  the  Dead  Sea  region,  these  waters  flow  from 
Jerusalem  to  both  the  eastern  and  the  western  seas,  and 
perennially,  summer  and  winter  (xiv,  8).  If  this  apocalyptic 
picture  is  not  an  idle  fancy,  —  if  a  great  truth  was  rising 
before  the  prophet's  inner  eye,  —  one  must  find  room  for 
its  growing  fulfillment  not  in  an  exclusive  Judaism  but  in 
the  undying  power  of  Christian  light  and  truth.  Such 
prophecy  may  subside  when  it  has  said  its  say  ;  its  divine 
vitality  does  not  subside. 

In  estimating  the  meaning  of  what  follows,  as  the  oracle 
goes  through  various  incidents  of  detail  and  emerges  to  cul- 
mination, we  must  still  bear  in  mind  that  though  a  limitless 
stretch  of  sublime  vis^n  lies  before  him  the  prophet  can 
use  only  the  terms  and  concepts  which  he  can  share  with 
his  readers,  and  which  must  be  left  to  after  times  to  project 
to  the  deeper  values  that  the  ages  have  in  store.  He  him- 
self too,  looking  to  worlds  not  realized,  is  but  a  citizen  of 
Jerusalem  and  imbued  with  the  peculiar  ideas  of  Judaism  ; 
his  vocabulary  cannot  well  transcend  that  fact.  It  is  the 
way  with  all  the  prophets  ;  it  must  needs  be  so.  One  is 
reminded  of  Tennyson's  description  of  Arthur's  knights, 
with  their  fervid  but  sometimes  futile  ideals  : 

For  these  have  seen  according  to  their  siglit. 

For  every  fiery  prophet  in  old  times, 

And  all  the  sacred  madness  of  the  bard. 

When  God  made  music  thro'  them,  could  but  speak 

His  music  by  the  framework  and  the  chord ; 

And  as  ye  saw  it  ye  have  spoken  truth. 

The  sight  enlarges,  undergoes  transformation  and  correction ; 
the  truth  is  not  dimmed  or  outgrown. 

Let  us  not  deem  it  strange  or  belittling,  therefore,  if  cur 
oracle,  after  a  kind  of  excursion  among  nations  and  sweeping 
conditions,  wherein  anew  their  relation  to  the  transcendent 
power  centered  in  the  spiritual  Jerusalem  is  trenchantly  de- 
picted (xiv,  12—19),  emerges  at  length  to  a  situation,  as  it 

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were  homely  and  domestic,  wherein  things  have  fallen  into 
normal  and  peaceful  order,  as  in  a  permanent  home.  "And 
men  shall  dwell  therein,  and  there  shall  be  no  more  curse ; 
but  Jerusalem  shall  dwell  safely"  (xiv,  1 1).  It  is  noteworthy 
that  the  concrete  symbol  of  this  perfected  well-being,  the 
cynosure  of  attraction  and  pilgrimage,  is  not  the  sanctuary, 
as  with  Ezekiel,  but  the  ^  feast  of  tabernacles,  the  secular 
feast  of  the  year  wherein  the  domestic  and  industrial  bless- 
ings of  life  were  brought  to  memory  and  thanksgiving;  that 
the  homeliest  utensils  of  work  and  household  are  as  sacred 
as  the  vessels  of  the  Temple  ;  and  that  the  spirit  of  trade 
and  commercial  greed  shall  no  more  invade  the  house  of 
Jehovah.i  It  is  the  idealized  comm|)nwealth,  described  in 
terms  of  common  men  and  everyday  affairs ;  a  state  in  which 
sacred  and  secular  are  no  more  at  odds,  but  all  is  alike  holy. 

On  a  previous  page^  Zechariah  is  spoken  of  as  "  the  last 

of  the  named  prophets,"  while  the  latter  part  of  his  book 

(ix-xiv)  is  regarded  as  consisting  of  two  anony- 

Prophet  of      mous  oraclcs  which  have  somehow  come  to  be 

Jehovah's       appended  to  his  original  work.     Each  of  these 

Messenger 

oracles  has  a  peculiar  heading  ("  The  burden  of 
the  word  of  Jehovah,"  Zech.  ix,  i  ;  xii,  i),  a  heading  which 
occurs  only  in  one  other  place,  namely,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  Book  of  Malachi.  This  book,  accordingly,  is  by  many, 
perhaps  most,  scholars  held  to  belong  to  the  same  group  of 
left-over  oracles  and  to  be,  like  the  others,  anonymous.  The 
name  "Malachi,"  which  as  translated  " my  messenger "  reap- 
pears at  chapter  iii,  i,  does  not  in  itself  sound  like  a  proper 
name,   though    it    may  be  a   contraction    of   "  Malachiah." 

1  "  No  more  a  Canaanite."  xiv,  21.  The  word  "  Canaanite."  from  the  rul- 
ing propensity  of  that  nation,  came  to  mean  a  trafficker  or  trader,  and  this 
acquired  with  the  more  magnanimous  a  tinge  of  odium,  like  our  word 
"huckster."  One  sees  this  in  the  original  of  Prov.  xxxi,  24;  Isa.  xxiii,  8; 
Ezek.  xvii,  4  ;  Hos.  xii,  7  ;  Zeph.  i,  11. 

2  See  above,  p.  354. 

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LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE   EXILE 

The  book,  at  any  rate,  gets  more  meaning  from  the  word 
as  a  designation  of  its  principal  prediction  than  from  its  use 
as  the  name  of  a  person  who  otherwise  is  wholly  unknown. 

Malachi  is  about  three  quarters  of  a  century  later  than 
Haggai  and  Zechariah  ;  whether  later  also  than  the  two 
appended  oracles  is  uncertain.  It  belongs  to  the  times  of 
Ezra  and  Xehemiah,  who  did  their  reforming  and  rebuild- 
ing work  in  the  years  from  458  to  432  b.c,  and  reflects 
quite  faithfully  the  degenerate  conditions  of  those  times, 
especially  before  Ezra's  pentateuchal  law  had  taken  its  fixed 
hold  on  the  people's  mind.  It  impresses  one  as  if  for  the 
last  time  the  prophetic  force  were  injected  into  a  race  which 
had  almost  ceased  to  be  alive  to  its  fervid  and  cogent  spirit. 

The  whole  tone  of  this  prophet's  message  evinces  his 
feeling  that  the  time  has  come  to  speak  out  bluntlv  and 
Getting  at  Plainly,  no  longer  mincing  matters  with  apocalyp- 
the  Heart  tie  dreams  but  exhibiting  conditions  as  they  are 
°  '°^^  and  as  they  tend.  The  community  has  drifted 
along  in  its  perfunctory  Temple  and  priest  regime  until  this 
has  become  an  old  story.  It  seems,  as  it  were,  to  be  run- 
ning itself,  and  at  the  cheapest  and  easiest  rate.  Such  a 
state  of  things,  with  its  careless  self-indulgence,  can  incur 
only  one  result :  it  brings  upon  itself  the  inevitable  blight  of 
a  torpid  conscience,  heedless  of  moral  and  spiritual  claims. 
This  seems  to  have  been  the  prevailing  evil  of  the  prophet's 
time  ;  and  this,  just  this,  is  what  the  prophetic  spirit  and 
ideal  can  least  tolerate.  The  whole  labor  of  the  prophetic 
movement  from  the  beginning  has  been  with  a  nation's  con- 
science, to  waken  and  educate  it  for  a  unique  mission  in  the 
world.  Hence  our  prophet's  message,  which  evidently  is 
given  at  a  time  when  prophetic  and  even  religious  ferv'or 
is  subsiding,  is  virtually  a  straight  appeal  to  conscience,  to 
the  heart  and  meaning  of  things. 

His  literary  method,  which  is  quite  different  from  what 
we  find  elsewhere,  is  peculiarly  adapted  to  this  object.    It 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

consists  in  first  launching  some  incisive  proposition  —  some- 
thing calculated  to  rouse  reaction  or  doubt  —  and  then,  after 
asking  the  question  that  is  sure  to  rise,  proceeding  to  explain 
and  enforce.  It  is  a  kind  of  Socratic  dialectic  employed  not 
for  philosophical  inquiry  but  for  spiritual  conviction.  The 
truths  with  which  it  deals  are  truths  of  the  moral  nature, 
which  do  not  depend  on  logical  premises,  and  which  cannot 
be  gainsaid.  Thus  it  is  not  so  much  argumentative  as  ex- 
pository and  assertive,  - — •  as  indeed  is  the  native  bent  of  the 
Hebrew  mind.     Its  objective  is  not  reflection  but  conduct. 

Note.  For  this  general  cast  of  the  Hebrew  mind,  as  compared  with 
the  Hellenic,  see  above,  pp.  37-39.  The  same  distinction  is  touched 
upon  also  in  connection  with  the  wisdom  literature,  p.  94.  It  is  worth 
noting  that  Malachi's  activity  fell  in  the  age  of  Socrates,  when  Greek 
thinking  and  literature  began  to  be  an  influence  in  the  ideas  of  man- 
kind ;  not  that  he  drew  from  Greek  methods,  but  that  the  human  mind 
in  general  was  coming  to  more  systematic  and  logical  formation  of 
opinion,  in  a  word,  more  intellectuality. 

In  a  series  of  such  challenging  attacks  the  prophet 
launches  his  indictment  of  the  nation's  torpid  conscience, 
Scoring  the  addressing  in  turn  the  different  classes  —  priests, 
General  nobility,^    and    general    body  —  and    scoring    the 

Clerical  and  specific  failing  prevalent  in  each.  Thus,  going 
Common  through  the  whole  social  order,  he  concludes  them 
all  under  their  peculiar  tendencies  to  sin, — a  significant 
summary  of  the  conditions  against  which  the  coming  of  the 
messenger  is  due. 

He  begins  with  the  clergy,  who  as  guardians  of  the 
organized  Temple  regime  have  the  nation's  spiritual  welfare 
in  charge.  "  L'or  the  priest's  lips,"  he  says,  "should  keep 
knowledge,  and  they  should  seek  the  law  at  his  mouth  ;  for 

1  So  for  distinction  we  may  perhaps  designate  the  quasi-aristocratic 
class  addressed  as  "Judah"  (ii,  11),  doubtless  identical  with  the  "chief- 
tains of  Judah,"  Zech.  xii,  5,  —  there  distinguished  from  the  "inhabitants 
of  Jerusalem  "  who  arc  of  the  rank  and  file. 

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LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

he  is  the  messenger  of  Jehovah  of  hosts  "  (ii,  7).  It  is  not 
the  claims  of  law,  however,  that  he  urges  upon  them,  but 
of  loyalty  and  service.  Introducing  his  plea  by  a  proof 
drawn  from  the  contrasted  doom  and  destiny  of  Edom  that 
the  brother  nation  of  Israel  is  the  favored  object  of  Jeho- 
vah's love  (i,  2-5),  he  takes  the  priests  on  the  ground  of 
the  honor  and  reverence  due  to  such  paternal  and  filial  rela- 
tion. "A  son  honoreth  his  father,  and  a  servant  his  master: 
if  then  I  am  a  father,  where  is  mine  honor  ?  and  if  I  am  a 
master,  where  is  my  fear .?  saith  Jehovah  of  hosts  unto  you, 
O  priests,  that  despise  my  name  "  (i,  6).  To  their  assumed 
question,  "  Wherein  have  we  despised  thy  name  ?  "  he  goes 
on  to  specify  that  they  offer  for  sacrifice  to  Jehovah  gifts 
that  they  would  not  offer  to  their  ruler,  blind  and  lame  and 
sick  and  blemished,  so  that  the  God  whom  the  Gentiles 
honor  (i,  11,  14)  is  made  contemptible  among  his  own 
people  ;  besides,  the  whole  order  of  service  is  perfunctory 
and  irksome  to  them,  they  have  no  heart  in  it  or  respect 
for  it,  and  they  shame  their  priestly  ancestry  in  Levi,  whose 
relations  with  God  and  people  were  genuine  and  just,  in 
contrast  to  theirs,  which  have  made  them  contemptible  and 
base,  false  guardians  of  right  and  justice  (i,  6-ii,  9). 

Against  the  notables  ("Judah"),  the  pace-setters  of  public 
sentiment  and  conduct,  who  seem  to  rank  as  a  kind  of  aris- 
tocracy, his  indictment  is  more  fundamental.  His  name  for 
it  is  treachery.  "Have  we  not  all  one  father.?"  he  asks; 
"hath  not  one  God  created  us.?  why  do  we  deal  treacher- 
ously every  man  against  his  brother,  profaning  the  covenant 
of  our  fathers"  (ii,  10).?  As  the  foul  type  of  this  treachery 
he  attacks  the  alarming  prevalence  of  divorce,  which  is  a 
deadly  blow  at  the  most  sacred  and  helpful  relation  in  life, 
that  relation  in  which  husband  and  wife  become  one.  Judah 
had  "married  the  daughter  of  a  foreign  god"  (ii,  11),  thus 
dealing  treacherously  with  the  "  wife  of  his  vouth,"  his  com- 
panion, and  the  wife  of  his  covenant.    In  their  comparative 

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poverty  and  disfavor,  it  would  seem,  the  custom  had  grown 
of  putting  away  the  native  Hebrew  wives,  probably  in  order 
to  marry  into  families  of  greater  wealth  and  distinction 
among  the  more  prosperous  people  of  the  surrounding  prov- 
inces. But  this  was  'more  than  family  unfaithfulness  ;  it 
bred  wholesale  falseness  and  wrong  in  a  people  that  should 
be  neighbors  and  kindred.  So  when  the  Lord  came  as  a 
refiner's  fire  to  His  Temple,  His  judgment  would  be  against 
a  sad  accumulation  of  evils.  "  And  I  will  be  a  swift  wit- 
ness," is  the  oracle,  "against  the  sorcerers,  and  against  the 
adulterers,  and  against  the  false  •  swearers,  and  against  those 
that  oppress  the  hireling  in  his  wages,  the  widow,  and  the 
fatherless,  and  that  turn  aside  the  sojourner  from  his  right, 
and  fear  not  me,  saith  Jehovah  of  hosts"  (iii,  5).  The  torpid 
conscience  has  much  to  answer  for,  among  people  as  among 
priests.  It  has  let  in  evils  that  have  poisoned  the  whole 
tissue  of  society. 

The  people  in  general,  too,  come  in  for  their  share  in  the 
prophet's  censure,  and  it  reduces  to  much  the  same  cause. 
Their  religion  has  ceased  to  be  a  religion  of  faith.  They 
seem  to  have  regarded  the  service  of  Jehovah  as  a  kind  of 
barter,  wherein  they  are  no  longer  getting  the  worth  of  their 
money,  and  they  do  not  scruple  to  rob  God  of  the  tithes 
and  offerings  that  are  His  due  (iii,  8),  disposed  as  they  are 
to  count  the  paying  values  of  life  in  terms  of  sheer  worldli- 
ness.  The  prophet's  summary  of  the  matter  is,  "  Ye  have 
said,  '  It  is  vain  to  serve  God  :  and  what  profit  is  it  that 
we  have  kept  his  charge,  and  that  we  have  walked  mourn- 
fully before  Jehovah  of  hosts  ?  and  now  we  call  the  proud 
happy;  yea, -they  that  work  wickedness  are  built  up;  yea, 
they  tempt  God,  and  escape'"  (iii,  14,  15).  So  near  to  a 
reversal  of  their  spiritual  allegiance  the  prophet  has  found 
his  people.  Yet  if  they  are  minded  to  buy  their  blessings, 
he  assures  them  of  the  right  and  rewarding  way,  namely,  to 
prove  Jehovah  with  an  honest  tithe  (iii,  10-12). 

[366] 


LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

But  he  turns  intrepidly,  as  the  prophets  have  done  be- 
fore, as  the  supplementary  Zechariah  has  done  (cf.  Zech. 
xiii,  9),  to  the  little-heeded  nucleus,  sole  faithful  among  the 
faithless.  It  is  as  if  the  chosen  people  were  reduced  again 
to  a  small  remnant.  But  to  them  the  promise  is  still  strong 
and  unfailing.  "  Then  they  that  feared  Jehovah,"  it  is 
written  as  of  an  accomplished  fact,  "  spake  one  with  an- 
other ;  and  Jehovah  hearkened  and  heard,  and  a  book  of 
remembrance  was  written  before  him,  for  them  that  feared 
Jehovah,  and  that  thought  upon  his  name"  (iii,  i6).  A  new 
note  is  here  struck.  The  former  remnant  was  the  pledge 
and  germ  of  redemption,  a  pledge  which  the  Second  Isaiah 
saw  fulfilled.  Here  the  note  is  of  fellowship,  "  one  to  an- 
other." One  of  the  sweetest  tributes  of  all  prophecy  is 
reserved  for  such  fellowship  and  mutual  understanding  in 
steadfast  loyalty  (iii,  17)  ;  it  defines  the  principle  out  of 
which  is  to  come  the  regeneration  of  society. 

We  have  called  Malachi  the  prophet  of  Jehovah's  messen- 
ger, the  messenger  that  the  priests  of  the  reorganized  com- 
monwealth, ought  to  have  been  (cf.  ii,  7)  but  failed 

The  ... 

Messenger      to    be.     With    their    insincere    and    perfunctory 

and  his  ministrations,   the  mark  of  a  torpid  conscience, 

Function  ,  ,    .'  ,  .  t    1  1  , 

they  were  domg  nothmg  to  prepare  J  ehovah  s  way 

before  Him.     The  messenger's  power  and  function,  on  the 

other  hand,   must  be  prophetic,   charged  with  all  the  vital 

spirit  of  prophecy.     Yet  his  function  is   not  executive  but 

preparatory   (iii,   i).     Elijah  the  prophet,  who  is  identified 

with  him,  is  sent  to  "  turn  the  heart  of  the  fathers  to  the 

children,  and  the  heart  of   the  children   to   their  fathers " 

(iv,  6),  that  is,  to  induce  such  unity  of  idea  and  sympathy 

as   shall   be   the   fitting   preparedness  for   "the  day  that  I 

make"  (or,  "that  I  do  this"  cf.  iii,   17;   iv,  3).    We  know 

how  some  four   hundred   and   seventy-five   years   afterward 

this    prophecy    of    "  my    messenger "    was    on    Jesus'    own 

authority    interpreted  of   John    the    Baptist,   whom    for   the 

[367] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

work  he  did  Jesus  held  to  be  "a  prophet,  and  much  more 
than  a  prophet"  (see  Matt,  xi,  7-15;  xvii,  10-13).  Thus 
the  last  word  of  Old  Testament  prophecy  joins  with  the 
first  word  of  the  New  Testament  prophecy,  a  word  wherein 
prediction  passes  into  fulfillment.  All  is  ip  the  same  line 
of  preparation  for  the  greatest  event  of  history,  and  proph- 
ecy subsides  only  to  bide  its  time  until  its  next  word  shall 
be  final. 

As  compared,  however,  with  the  searching  sequel  for 
which  it  is  a  preparation,  this  function  of  the  messenger  is 
only  preliminary  and  prelusive,  as  befits  the  last  brave  potency 
of  an  old  spiritual  order.  Its  significance  centers  in  what  it 
introduces.  Along  with  "  the  messenger  of  the  covenant, 
whom  ye  desire  "  is  One  greater ;  '"  the  Lord,  whom  ye 
seek,  will  suddenly  come  to  his  temple"  (iii,  i).  It  will  not 
do  to  cramp  this  prediction  to  literalism  by  referring  it  to 
Jesus'  entry  into  the  Temple  and  his  expulsion  of  the  traders 
and  money-changers  (John  ii,  13-17),  though  this  belongs 
to  the  advent  of  the  same  momentous  order.  The  prophet's 
vision,  while  it  comports  with  this,,  is  much  more  far- 
reaching.  And  here  a  new  prophetic  symbolism  controls 
the  vision,  one  hitherto  only  touched  upon  (cf.  Isa.  xlviii, 
10;  Zech.  xiii,  9),  the  symbol  of  the  refiner's  fire.  We  will 
recall  how  the  Second  Isaiah's  ruling  symbolism  of  coming 
blessing  was  that  of  water,  with  its  connotation  of  refresh- 
ing, fertility,  and  cleansing  (Isa.  xli,  17-19;  xliii,  20; 
xliv,  3  ;  xlix,  10  ;  Iv,  i).  Ezekiel  too,  from  his  priestly  and 
ritual  sense  of  things,  promises  a  like  purifying  by  water 
(Ezek.  xxxvi,  25).  Here  the  sense  goes  deeper  than  out- 
ward prosperity  and  enlivening  to  the  inner  centers  of 
regenerate  character,  and  its  radical  results  correspond  (iii, 
3-6).  The  prophet's  further  description  of  the  day  of  fire 
presents  a  very  significant  contrast.  To  the  wicked  it  fig- 
ures as  a  consuming  furnace,  working  complete  destruction 
of   their   proud   and    base    ambitions.     To  those  that   fear 

f  368  ] 


LITERARY  FRUITS  OF  THE  EXILE 

Jehovah's  name,  on  the  other  hand,  "  shall  the  sun  of  right- 
eousness arise  with  healing  in  its  wings  "  (iv,  2),  —  like  the 
fire  of  opulent  and  orderly  nature,  in  which  is  joy  and 
growth  and  strength. 

In  the  New  Testament  use  of  this  symbolism,  the  tran- 
sition from  the  old  to  the  new  order  is  definitely  made  in 
terms  of  water  and  fire ;  the  former  being  adopted  by 
John  the  Baptist  as  the  meaning  of  his  preparatory  mission 
(Matt,  iii,  11),  the  latter  recognized  by  Jesus  as  the  mean- 
ing of  his  own  ministry  (Luke  xii,  49,  50)  and  passed  on 
to  literal  fulfillment  in  the  coming  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
(Acts  i,  5  ;  ii,  1-4).  Thus  prophecy  subsides,  to  make 
room  for  something  better. 


[369] 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  PURITAN   ERA  AND   ITS   LITERATURE 

[From  458  15.  c.  onwards] 

IN  THE  foregoing  chapter,  dealing  with  the  literary  fruits 
of  the  exile,  we  have  traced  the  course  of  prophecy,  its 
most  timely  and  characteristic  product,  beyond  the 
and  New  limits  of  the  return,  to  the  time  of  Ezra  the 
Foothold  scribe,  about  eighty  years  after  the  recolonizing 
of  the  Holy  Land.  Here  it  reaches  a  point  where  we  can 
glance  back  at  the  mighty  prophetic  movement  as  a  whole. ^ 
Rising  at  the  menace  of  Israel's  political  doom,  in  the  times 
of  Joel,  Amos,  and  Hosea,  that  movement  has  kept  pace 
with  the  whole  period  of  Israel's  peril,  suspense,  break-up, 
and  eventual  restoration  ;  faithfully  interpreting  it  all  as  in 
the  unfolding  will  and  purpose  of  God,  keeping  the  people's 
mind  true  to  its  duties  and  destinies  ;  reaching  its  nodes 
of  greatest  stress  and  immediacy  with  Isaiah  of  Jerusalem, 
Jeremiah,  and  the  Second  Isaiah  ;  forging  onward  in  fervor 
and  certitude  toward  a  large  Messianic  future  ;  then,  after 
the  return,  gradually  subsiding  as  the  people's  enthusiasm 
became  chilled  and  disillusioned  ;  going  out  finally  in  spasms 
of  occasional  warning  and  broken  gleams  of  an  apocalyptic 
new  order.  One  can  imagine  that  the  Book  of  Malachi, 
sternly  severe  as  it  was,  got  little  response  in  his  generation, 
except  from  the  handful  of  devout-minded  souls  (cf.  Mai.  iii, 
16-18)  in  whom  the  spirit  of  a  nobler  order  was  still  alive. 
That  prophet  was  indeed  sensible  that  his  word  was  a  final 

1  For  the  general  map  of  the  prophetic  movement,  sketched  from  its 
beginning  forward,  see  above,  pp.  133-137- 

[370] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS  LITERATURE 

or  rather  pausing  message  to  his  people,  a  virtual  postpone- 
ment of  prophecy-  to  a  more  rewarding  season.  And  later, 
probably  about  when  the  Daniel  apocalypse  was  due,  there 
came  a  time  when  men  of  religious  aspiration  were  com- 
plaining, "  We  see  not  our  signs  ;  there  is  no  more  any 
prophet ;  neither  is  there  among  us  any  that  knoweth  how 
long "  (Psa.  Ixxiv,  9).  Such,  broadly  speaking,  was  the 
curve  of  rise,  culmination,  and  subsidence  of  the  prophetic 
strain  in  the  development  of  Biblical  literature.  Conceived 
and  maintained  by  men  of  lofty  vision  and  faith,  whose 
sole  care  was  that  Jehovah's  word  and  will  should  prevail, 
it  did  untold  service  toward  the  race's  realization  of  its 
noble  mission  and  destiny. 

And  its  decline  was  not  in  failure  or  doubt,  but  in  qui- 
escence and  pause,  waiting,  so  to  speak,  until  other  strains 
could  catch  up  with  it.  It  was  always  a  specialized  utter- 
ance. As  the  literature  of  spiritual  ideal  and  insight  it  had 
dealt  with  the  crises  and  emergencies  of  the  nation's  expe- 
rience.^ Hence  its  high  plane  of  intensity ;  its  formula  of 
warrant  "  Thus  saith  Jehovah,"  fitting  its  impassioned  appeals 
to  high  surges  of  zeal  and  resolve.  It  was  a  literature 
dynamic,  inspirational. 

As  such,  however,  prophecy  was  less  mindful  of  the  static 
levels  of  an  established  cultus  and  government,  and  of  the 
cultural  needs  of  domestic  and  individual  life.  Hence  its 
natural  subsidence  when  the  restored  nation's  affairs  had 
become  uniform  and  prosaic,  —  that  equable  progress  whose 
annals  are  dull.^  It  was  giving  place  to  a  cultural  regime 
of  more  pervasive  and  educative  character.  Accordingly,  the 
ensuing  period  was  one  during  which  the  people's  response 
was  more  to  the  activities  of  scribes  and  priests  arud  rabbis, 
who  functioned  as  scholars,  magistrates,  and  religious  teachers. 

^  See  above,  pp.  127-129. 

-"Happy  the  people  whose  annals  are  blank  in  history  books."  — 
Montesquieu,  quoted  by  Carlyle. 

[.371] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Its  historical  remains  from  Nehemiah's  time  onward  are  very 
scanty.  One  judges  its  tone  and  mood  partly  by  hints  and 
inferences  drawn  from  contemporary  productions  and  partly 
by  the  literary  situation  at  the  coming  of  Jesus.  It  has 
been  called,  too  indiscriminately  I  think,  "  the  night  of 
legalism."  A  more  fitting  name,  suggestive  of  an  analogous 
period  in  modern  religious  history,  is  The  Puritan  Era. 

The  literature  that  gave  character  and  color  to  this  era 
calls  now  for  consideration. 


I.    The  Initiative  from  Babylon 

It  does  not  appear  that  when  the  Jewish  people  went 
back  from  Chaldean  exile  to  the  homeland  they  had  with 
The  Dearth  ^^cm  any  considerable  number  of  scholars  and 
of  Learning  writers.  The  situation  was  not  favorable  to  re- 
in jerus  em  f^i^gjjjgj^|-  Qf  culture.  Those  who  returned  were 
virtually  settlers  and  pioneers,  whose  energies  must  be  em- 
ployed in  building  homes  and  reclaiming  the  land.  A  spirit 
of  piety  and  enthusiasm,  roused  by  prophetic  assurance,  had 
brought  them  there,  but  this  in  itself  was  a  slender  support 
against  the  trials  and  disillusions  they  must  encounter.  Two 
generations  of  captivity  in  a  strange  land,  without  autonomy 
or  methodical  cultus,  had  impoverished  their  civic  and  re- 
ligious thinking.  We  see  this  reflected  in  the  moral  con- 
ditions that  Haggai  and  Zechariah  recognized  in  their  efforts 
to  get  the  Temple  rebuilt.  It  was  a  relatively  primitive 
state  of  society,  wherein  the  leaders  were  careless  of  duty 
and  the  priest's  robes  were  dirty  (cf.  Zech.  iii,  3).  Nor,  as 
it  would  seem,  did  matters  greatly  improve  after  the  Temple 
was  dedicated.  It  was  not  furnished  with  the  robust  devo- 
tion and  loyalty  that  a  recovered  sanctuary  service  ought  to 
have.  This  we  see  in  the  faithless  and  insincere  conditions 
that  Malachi  found  at  about  the  time  of  Ezra's  arrival  from 
Babylon.    The  people  needed  a  new  access  of  religious  faith 

[37^] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS   LITERATURE 

indeed,  but  also  they  needed  a  sounder  infusion  of  thought 
and  learning  from  their  inherited  store  of  tradition  and 
instruction.  They  were  not  living  up  to  their  history  and 
heritage. 


Post-Exilic  Men  of  Letters  and  their  Work.  From  this 
unsatisfactory  state  of  things  in  the  Holy  Land  we  return 
now  to  consider  the  situation  of  the  Jewish  communities 
still  remaining  in  Chaldea  and  Persia.  They  constituted, 
as  we  have  seen,^  the  great  majority  of  the  people  :  the 
men  of  age  and  distinction  and  property  and  culture  who 
were  not  so  well  fitted  for  the  pioneer  work  of  recolonizing, 
and  whom  in  the  large-  sense  we  recognize  as  the  Jews  of 
the  Dispersion.  It  is  to  the  representative  thinkers  and 
scholars  of  these  communities,  perhaps  to  guilds  of  these, 
fhat  we  are  to  look  for  the  principal  literary  activity  of  the 
time  beginning  with  the  exile  and  continuing  till  perhaps 
a  century  or  so  after  the  return. 

From  the  time  of  the  situation  disclosed  in  Ezekiel  and 
Second  Isaiah  onward  the  history  of  the  Jews  who  still 
Prophecy  remained  in  Chaldea  and  Persia  is  silent.  We 
Succeeded  by  can  judge  of  its  tenor  only  by  some  of  its  liter- 
choarship  ^j.^,  effects.  As  we  have  seen,  the  interest  of 
the  few  salient  stages  known  to  us  —  the  hopeful  return, 
the  hardships  of  recolonizing  the  homeland,  and  the  labor 
of  a  poverty-stricken  people  to  rebuild  their  Temple  —  is 
transferred  to  Jerusalem,  But  this  was  the  history  of  an 
essentially  religious  movement  responding  to  the  enthusiasm 
of  prophets  and  priests.  Its  impulsion  came  rather  from 
an  imagined  future  than  from  a  storied  past,  and  the  char- 
acter of  its  devotees  corresponded.  The  more  intellectual 
and  scholarly  element  of  the  nation  remained  in  the  land  of 
their  exile  ;  for  this  had  become  to  them  an  adopted  home 

'  See  above,  p.  327. 
[373] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

where  they  could  cultivate  their  ideals  as  well  as  in  the 
shadow  of  the  Temple.  So  long  deprived  of  a  sanctuary, 
they  had  come  in  their  cultus  to  depend  less  on  ritualistic 
forms  and  more  on  the  spirit.  A  few  simple  customs,  such 
as  private  and  communal  prayer,  the  observance  of  the 
Sabbath,  and  memorial  fasting,  sufficed  them  ^  as  well  in 
neighborhood  synagogues  as  in  a  centralized  Temple.  The 
development  of  the  synagogue  service,  accordingly,  is  a 
characteristic  feature  of  the  Jews  of  the  Dispersion. 

In  all  this  silent  experience  their  most  valuable  possession 
was  the  rich  deposit  of  literature,  historic  and  prophetic, 
which  they  had  inherited  from  their  fathers.  To  this  they 
turned  with  a  zest  and  reverence  that  they  had  never  known 
before.  It  embodied  the  principles  and  ideals  that  had 
separated  them  from  the  mass  of  humanity  and  made  them 
a  nation.  Its  elements,  well  ingrained  by  their  prophetically 
guided  history,  made  them  consciously  superior,  in  a  spirit- 
ual sense,  to  the  highly  civilized  people  among  whom  their 
lot  was  cast.  This  consciousness  was  the  motive  power  of 
their  unity  and  redemption.  Accordingly,  the  regards  of 
their  men  of  insight  and  letters  were  turned  to  the  work 
of  collecting,  coordinating,  revising,  and  supplementing  the 
fund  of  national  literature  which  their  past  had  bequeathed 
to  them.  It  is  this  which  we  note  as  the  dominant  literary 
activity  of  the  exile  period  in  Chaldea ;  this  it  was  which 
called  together  and  unified  their  literature  and  made  them 
the  people  of  a  book. 

What  shape  this  fund  of  the  nation's  literature  was  in, 
when  from  its  depositary  in  the  Temple  or  in  private  keep- 
ing it  was  hastily  gathered  up  and  carried,  prob- 
Literary  ably  with  the  first  deportation,  into  the  land  of 
Cleavage  captivity,  we  do  not  know,  but  we  can  reasonably 
conjecture.  It  was  doubtless  in  separate  rolls,  sheets,  and 
tablets  ;  some  in  fairly  complete  form,  some  in  memoranda 
or  fugitive  collections  ;  rudely  classified,  if  at  all ;  archives, 

[374] 


THE  PURITAN   ERA  AND  ITS   LITERATURE 

historical  annals,  genealogies,  laws  and  ordinances,  Temple 
psalms  and  songs,  proverbs,  and  the  utterances  of  the  liter- 
ary prophets,  all  more  or  less  jumbled  together,  and  still 
doubtless,  as  they  had  been,  in  the  keeping  of  the  clergy 
or  priests.  And  the  clergy,  with  no  official  work  of  the 
altar  to  do,  turned  to  the  study  of  their  civic  and  religious 
archives,  and  became  scribes  or  scholars.  So,  as  during  the 
captivity  prophecy  culminated  and  later  subsided,  scholar- 
ship, gradually  taking  its  place,  grew  in  vigor  and  solidity 
and  became  a  dominant  achievement  of  the  men  of  leading. 
To  this  not  only  their  enforced  leisure  but  the  atmosphere 
of  a  cultured  land  would  contribute.  They  could  estimate 
their  literary  accumulations  in  a  new  light. 

There  were  naturally  two  lines  of  cleavage  in  the  work 
undertaken  by  these  unnamed  scholars  :  one  selecting  the 
works  adapted  to  the  present  needs  in  Chaldea,  and  of  the 
Dispersion  in  general ;  the  other  collecting  and  codifying 
the  works  adapted  to  the  permanent  and  as  it  were  con- 
stitutional needs  of  the  people  who  had  returned  to  the 
homeland  to  set  up  their  capital  anew. 

I.  It  would  naturally  begin,  I  think,  with  their  store  of 
prophecies,  whose  truth  and  sanity  had  been  so  vindicated 
_,.    T .      ,    by  the  event  of  fulfillment  and  restoration.    All 

The  Line  of        -' 

Vindicated  the  extant  work  of  the  literary  prophets,  as  we 
rop  ecy  have  seen,  had  centered  about  this  crisis  of 
national  break-up  and  exile  ;  and  its  vitality  would  be  evi- 
dent now.  It  had  become  classic.  Accordingly,  with  the 
work  of  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel  still  fresh  in  mind  as  a 
nucleus,  these  scholars  would  bring  together,  arrange,  and 
perhaps  touch  up  and  fill  out  the  earlier  remains.  The  last 
two  chapters  of  Jeremiah  —  to  mention  only  one  example 
—  are  generally  regarded  as  a  case  in  point ;  and  we  have 
seen  how  grandly  the  unknown  Second  Isaiah  supplemented 
the  torso  left  by  Isaiah  son  of  Amoz,  making  it  a  finished 
vision  covering  virtually  the  whole  prophetic  period.    So  it 

[375]  ' 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

would  fare  also  with  Micah,  Nahum,  Zephaniah,  Habakkuk, 
for  the  Judean  state ;  nor  would  they  omit  Hosea  and 
Amos  for  the  still  earlier  northern  kingdom  ;  for  the  proph- 
ecy of  Isaiah  (cf.  Isa.  xi,  11-13)  and  later  of  Ezekiel 
(cf.  Ezek.  xxxvii,  15-28)  had  come  true,  and  the  whole 
Israelitish  race  was  again  united  in  spirit.  In  the  feeling 
of  the  prophets,  indeed,  it  had  never  been  divided ;  their 
ultimate  mission  was  one. 

It  was  the  body  of  collected  prophecy,  not  unlikely,  that 
became  the  favorite  reading  matter  of  the  Jews  of  the  Dis- 
persion and  of  the  outlying  districts  of  Palestine,  in  the 
scattered  communities  where  in  course  of  time  synagogues 
were  erected  in  \Vhich  both  for  religious  service  and  popular 
education  Scripture  was  read  and  cherished.  Such  com- 
munities had  less  use,  relatively,  for  such  rules  and  rituals 
as  in  the  Pentateuch  are  associated  with  Temple  and  clergy, 
and  more  relative  regard  for  the  fervid  ideals  of  the  proph- 
ets, with  their  more  spacious  interpretation  of  life.  Such 
differentiation  of  literary  interests  would  produce  its  own 
type  of  emphasis  and  sentiment.  We  see  the  effect  of  this 
different  attitude  in  the  time  of  Jesus'  ministry,  when  he 
and  his  Galilean  disciples  were  imbued  with  prophetic  ideas, 
while  the  Jews  of  the  capital,  with  whom  they  came  in  con- 
tact, had  become  hard  and  intolerant  in  their  narrow  regard 
for  the  law  of  Moses  and  the  usages  of  ecclesiasticism. 

2.  Here,  however,  we  must  take  renewed  note  of  the 
distinctive  Hebrew  genius.  In  the  mind  of  the  Jewish 
The  Lin  f  scholars  prophecy  was  intimately  involved  in  his- 
Historicai  tory  ;  history  —  ///r/r  history  at  least  —  was  essen- 
vo  ution  tiaiiy  prophetic.^  It  was  luminous  with  the  mind 
and  purpose  of  Jehovah.  They  regarded  their  greatest  law- 
giver as  their  greatest  prophet  (cf.  Deut.  xxxiv,   10)  ;  they 

1  For  remarks  on  the  Hebrew  genius  for  history  and  prophecy,  as 
compared  especially  with  the  Gredk  genius  for  philosophy,  see  above, 
PP-  37-39- 

[376] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS   LITERATURE 

accepted  the  prophets  as  interpreters  of  events  (cf .  Amos  iii,  7) ; 
and  when  later  their  body  of  literature  assumed  the  form 
of  a  canon  the  collection  of  books  narrating  the  nation's 
history  (Joshua  to  Second  Kings)  was  counted  as  prophecy, 
being  called  "  the  earlier  prophets  "  [nb/nim  r  shonim), 
while  the  prophets  proper  (Isaiah  to  Malachi)  were  called 
"the  later  prophets  "  {nb/nim  aharonini).  This  shows  how 
liberally  and  honorably  the  idea  of  prophecy  was  construed. 
Nor  were  the  prophets  proper  ranked  as  mere  augurs  and 
diviners,  like  the  professional  fortune  tellers  of  other  nations  ; 
such,  in  fact,  came  to  discredit  and  shame  (cf .  Jer.  xxvii,  9  ; 
Zech.  xiii,  3-5)  ;  rather,  they  were  regarded  as  spokesmen 
of  Jehovah,  interpreting  the  meaning  and  tendencies  of  his- 
torical conditions  and  events.  As  a  recent  writer  has  put 
it,  "  Rightly  regarded,  prophecy  is  the  statement  of  eternal 
truth  in  a  form  suited  to  an  immediate  occasion."  ^  So 
intimate,  in  the  matured  scholarly  view,  was  the  blending  of 
prophecy  and  history  ;  so  reverent  the  spirit  accorded  to  both. 
As  such  interpreters  the  prophets  proper  had  their  degree 
of  authority,  an  authority  adequate  for  present  faith  and 
stimulus  ;  but  the  history  itself,  with  its  developed  laws  and 
proved  lessons,  came  to  have  an  authority  still  greater.  It 
was  the  authority  of  fact  illuminated  by  values,  the  values 
of  a  divinely  guided  evolution.  Such  liberal  estimate  of  the 
past  led  these  old-time  scholars  to  deal  fairly,  rigidly  indeed, 
with  the  records  in  their  hands.  In  compiling  the  annals 
of  their  leaders,  judges,  and  kings  they  did  not  take  liberties 
with  their  historical  material ;  did  not  twist  or  deny  its  state- 
ments. They  had  gathered  it  from  many  sources  documen- 
tary and  traditional,  ranging  from  state  archives  to  personal 
and  family  narratives,  and  they  were  content  to  set  the 
stories  side  by  side,  ignoring  the  risks  of  discrepancy  and 
relative  authenticity.     Hence   the   impression  we   get  of  a 

1  See  above,  pp.  127,  141.   The  quotation  is  from  an  article  by  Theodore 
H.  Robinson  in  The  Interp7-eter  (July,  1917),  p.  137. 

[377] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

thoroughly  honest  history,  free  from  obtrusion  of  the  his- 
torians' personal  notions,  and  preserving  to  large  degree 
the  contemporary  tone  and  color  of  its  venerable  sources. 
Yet  also  it  is  eminently  homogeneous,  consistent,  continuous ; 
and  as  to  literary  artistry,  its  masterly  selection  of  relevant 
and  essential  material  from  so  vast  and  varied  a  mass  is 
evinced  in  the  fact  that  it  has  told  the  story  of  a  race  from 
prehistoric  and  patriarchal  times  through  many  centuries, 
from  Chaldea  to  Chaldea  again,  in  a  compass  which  in  our 
day  makes  up  only  a  section  of  a  single  volume.  This  is 
no  place  to  go  into  detail ;  it  is  sufficient,  in  estimating  the 
work  of  these  nameless  scholars  and  scribes,  to  take  note 
of  this  general  mastery  of  the  historic  sense  and  method. 

As  standards  of  orthodoxy  and  authority,  however,  the 

works  of  the  prophets  were  not  the  first  to  be  gathered  for 

J     ^   the  uses  of  an  eventual   Scripture  canon.     The 

Law-ordered  _  ' 

History  the  condition  of  things  in  the  recolonized  homeland. 
First  Claim  ^jj-eady  described,  called  for  an  initiative  of  another 
kind  from  Babylon.  There  were  other  works  that  had  a 
prior  claim ;  namely,  the  laws  of  Moses,  embodying  the 
code  and  constitution  of  Israel,  with  the  primitive  histories 
that  led  up  to  and  accompanied  them.  These  seem  to  have 
been  in  more  mixed  and  chaotic  condition  than  the  proph- 
ecies ;  in  more  need  therefore  of  the  organizing  touch  of 
scholarship.  There  was  more  need  also  of  vigor  and  sys- 
tem in  preparing  them  for  renewed  use  ;  for  the  restored 
community  in  Jerusalem  was  growing  lax  and  loose  for  want 
of  them,  and  must  needs  be  brought  to  a  sense  of  their 
uncompromising  authority  (cf.  Jehovah's  warning,  Mai.  iii,  6). 
One  body,  or  version,  of  Mosaic  law  was  already  well  known  : 
that  book  of  the  law  which  was  found  in  the  temple  in  the 
time  of  Josiah,  and  which  we  identify  with  the  Book  of 
Deuteronomy .1  Perhaps  also  Ezekiel's  visionary  sketch  for 
the  reorganization  of  the  cultus,  Ezek.  xliv  to  xlvi,  had  been 

1  See  "  The  Book  Found  in  the  Temple,"  pp.  220-22S  above. 
[378] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS   LITERATURE 

taken  back  to  the  homeland  for  use  in  starting  anew.  But 
the  rebuilt  Temple  with  its  usages,  and  the  church  now 
in  the  governance  of  High  Priests,  which  had  replaced  the 
Jewish  state,  required  more  articulated  and  systematized  legis- 
lation than  this  Book  of  Deuteronomy  could  supply  ;  and 
Ezekiel's  scheme,  drawn  up  largely,  it  would  seem,  from  his 
memory  of  priestly  usages,  could  only  be  preliminary  ;  the 
cultus  must  have  more  ancient  and  tested  authority  than  a 
hasty  sketch  could  give  it.  To  collect  and  codify  the  scattered 
laws  of  a  people  must  be  the  work  of  scholars,  and  it  must 
take  time  and  study.  How  many  scribes  were  engaged  on 
this  work  we  do  not  know,  nor  how  long  their  researches 
took  ;  its  results  appear  in  the  work  and  influence  of  one  man, 
Ezra,  "  a  ready  scribe  in  the  law  of  Moses  "  (Ezra  vii,  6),  who 
in  458  B.C.,  sixty  years  after  the  dedication  of  the  rebuilt 
Temple,  appeared  in  Jerusalem  with  the  completed  law  of 
Moses  in  his  hand.  "  For  Ezra  had  set  his  heart  to  seek 
the  law  of  Jehovah,  and  to  do  it,  and  to  teach  in  Israel 
statutes  and  ordinances  "  (Ezra  vii,  10). 


II 

Ezra :  Scribe  and  Scholar.  Ezra's  arrival  in  Jerusalem 
from  Babylon  was  in  many  ways  auspicious.  Of  priestly 
lineage  direct  from  Aaron,  he  seems  from  his  eminent 
learning  and  piety  to  have  obtained  the  esteem  of  King 
Artaxerxes,  who  by  royal  letter  authorized  him  to  act  as 
special  lawgiver  and  magistrate,  with  power  both  to  pro- 
mulgate and  enforce  the  law  of  his  God  and  of  the  king. 
There  accompanied  him  about  fifteen  hundred  like-minded 
men,  volunteers  from  leading  priestly  and  Levitical  families, 
who  in  the  troublous  years  that  ensued  proved  a  strong 
nucleus  and  support  in  the  reformed  doctrines  and  customs 
thus  introduced  from  Babylon.  They  took  with  them  a 
handsome  subsidy  of  gold  and  silver  for  the  maintenance 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

of  Temple  services  and  other  objects.  Such  a  reenforcement 
from  their  more  well-to-do  brethren  was  no  small  boon,  both 
material  and  cultural,  to  the  poverty-straitened  residents  of 
the  capital ;  and  it  was  received  with  suitable  thanksgiving 
and  honor  (Ezra  vii,  viii). 

Arrived  in  Jerusalem,  Ezra's  essentially  Puritan  spirit  was 
not  tardy  in  making  itself  felt.  One  of  the  truest  and 
Puritan  stanchest  men  of  all  Hebrew  history,  he  yet  had 

Spirit  in         the  defects  of  his  qualities.    With  all  his  devotion 

Outbreak  ,   ,  ....  •     i      r    i 

and  Stern  to  sacrcd  Icammg,  havmg  the  severe  mmd  ot  the 
Inquisition  scholar,  he  had  therewith  the  unbending  strict- 
ness, not  to  say  bigotry,  of  the  trained  specialist.  He  could 
tolerate  no  deviation  from  the  straight  line  of  his  grounded 
convictions,  nor  had  he  withal  the  tact  to  deal  graciously 
with  men  of  other  opinions.  And  his  first  discovery  of 
conditions  in  Jerusalem  invaded  —  outraged  as  he  conceived 
—  the  very  central  tenet  of  his  reforming  creed.  It  was 
the  discovery  of  the  mixed  marriages,  marriages  with  women 
of  alien  and  idolatrous  nations,  which  had  become  omi- 
nously prevalent  in  the  priestly  and  Levite  classes.  We  have 
noted  how  these  were  denounced  by  Malachi.  The  dramatic 
scene  in  which  he  deals  with  this  alarming  discovery  is 
almost  like  an  uncontrolled  outbreak  of  frenzied  fanaticism 
(Ezra  ix).  The  crowd  who  had  assembled,  grieved  at  his 
strange  demeanor  and  stung  by  a  vague  sense  of  guilt,  were 
at  first  easily  pliant  to  his  imperious  will.  He  lost  no  time 
in  exacting  from  them  an  oath  to  put  away  their  foreign 
wives  ;  but  later,  on  account  of  this  and  perhaps  other 
arbitrary  acts  of  his,i  a  sullen  reaction  set  in  which  for  a 
time  apparently  ended  his  active  influence,  costing  him 
twelve  years  of  silent  waiting  before,  availing  himself  of  the 

^  If  Ezra  iv,  which  seems  out  of  place  and  connection,  narrates  an  event 
of  this  period,  it  would  seem  that  he  attempted  to  rebuild  the  city  walls ; 
an  attempt  frustrated  by  his  enemies'  remonstrance  to  King  Artaxerxes, 
which  of  course  brought  him  into  discredit.  For  an  excellent  history  of 
all  this  complicated  period,  see  Hunter,  "After  the  Exile,"  Vol.  II. 

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THE  PURITAN   ERA  AND  ITS   LITERATURE 

patronage  of  Nehemiah,  he  could  bring  his  completed  law- 
book to  the  attention  of  the  people.^  Nor  did  it  transpire, 
when  at  length  he  executed  his  authorized  commission,  that 
his  law  had  given  him  clear  and  positive  warrant  for  such 
drastic  measures.  He  had  allowed  his  zeal  for  Jewish 
exclusiveness  and  pride  and  purity  of  race  to  outrun  his 
learning.  But,  as  we  shall  see,  he  was  not  the  man  to  give 
up  his  great  call  of  duty. 

At  length,  however,  his  opportunity  came.  It  is  not  our 
province  to  deal  with  the  civil  history  of  the  Jews  except 
The  Birthday  SO  far  as  it  furnishcs  a  background  for  the  lit- 
of  Judaism  erature.  Suffice  it  to  say,  the  coming  of  Nehe- 
miah as  governor  and  the  successful  rebuilding  of  the  city 
walls  intervened.  Doubtless  Ezra's  season  of  obscurity  was 
by  no  means  a  season  of  inactivity.  He  had  his  Chaldean 
colleagues  with  him  ;  he  was  strengthening  his  plans  and 
approaches  ;  perhaps  also  he  was  learning  to  adopt  a  more 
tempered  and  conciliatory  behavior ;  nor  can  we  omit  to 
mention  that  Nehemiah,  his  stanch  friend  and  supporter, 
supplied  the  tact  and  management  of  men  that  he  lacked. 
At  any  rate,  when  after  twelve  silent  years  he  came  out  of 
his  retirement  to  read  his  book  of  the  Mosaic  law,  it  was 
at  the  respectful  call  of  the  assembled  people  (Neh.  viii,  i). 
Perhaps  also  in  this  lean  time,  when  prospects  were  begin- 
ning to  brighten,  the  old  prophecy  of  Amos  was  coming 
true  :  "  Behold,  the  days  come,  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah, 
that  I  will  send  a  famine  in  the  land,  not  a  famine  of  bread, 
nor  a  thirst  for  water,  but  of  hearing  the  words  of  Jehovah  " 
(Amos  viii,  ii).  The  call  to  Ezra  was  significant  of  much 
in  the  more  wholesome  attitude  of  the  people  toward  the 
seasoned  and  steadying  ideas  of  life,  ideas  not  dependent 
on  violent  and  transitory  waves  of  emotion  or  fanaticism. 

1  This  we  infer  from  the  fact  that  nothing  more  is  said  of  Ezra  until 
Nehemiah,  coming  as  governor,  has  completed  the  repair  of  the  city  walls 
and  gates;  cf.  Neh.  viii,  i. 

[381] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

The  day  of  the  year  444  b.c.  on  which,  before  a  great 
multitude  of  princes,  priests,  and  people,  Ezra  "'  stood  upon 
a  pulpit  of  wood  which  they  had  made  for  the  purpose" 
(Neh.  viii,  4)  and  read  from  his  long-studied  book  of  the 
law.  while  his  able  colleagues  aided  him  by  reading  distinctly 
(literally,  interpretatively)  and  giving  the  sense,  "  so  that  they 
understood  the  reading"  (viii,  8),  has  been  aptly  named 
"the  birthday  of  Judaism,"  It  was  the  initiation  of  that 
cultural  period,  extending  to  the  advent  of  Christianity, 
during  which  the  Jewish  mind,  in  its  narrowness  and  its 
breadth,  its  tenacity  and  its  intensity,  was  coming  progres- 
sively to  its  own.  This  fact  makes  the  eighth  chapter  of 
Nehemiah  one  of  the  most  notable  chapters  in  the  annals 
of  Biblical  literature.  As  the  people  listened,  realizing  with 
every  responsive  "Amen,  Amen"  how  grievously  they  had 
neglected  and  despised  the  lessons  of  their  past,  they 
were  at  first  disposed  to  weep.  But  their  wise  governor 
Nehemiah,  under  whom  they  had  rebuilt  their  walls  and 
reorganized  their  commonwealth,  put  a  prompt  check  on 
this  untimely  sadness.  "  This  day,"  said  he,  "  is  holy  unto 
Jehovah  your  God  ;  mourn  not,  nor  weep.  ...  Go  your 
way,  eat  the  fat,  and  drink  the  sweet,  and  send  portions 
unto  him  for  whom  nothing  is  prepared  ;  for  this  day  is 
holy  unto  our  Lord,  neither  be  ye  grieved  :  for  the  joy  of 
Jehovah  is  your  strength  "  (viii,  9,  10).  These  noble  words 
strike  the  needed  keynote  of  the  new  Judaism  here  coming 
to  birth.  The  nation  had  too  long  clung  to  the  benumbing 
grief  which  under  the  form  of  fasting  had  become  an  or- 
dained memorial  of  its  hated  captivity  and  subjection.  The 
prophet  Zechariah  had  already  urged  its  discontinuance, 
or  rather  its  conversion  into  expressions  of  generosity  and 
fellowship  (Zech.  vii,  4-10;  viii,  18,  19).  It  had  been  the 
mark  of  the  nation's  weakness  and  self-distnist.  This  ex- 
hortation of  Nehemiah's,  on  the  other  hand,  gives  the  note 
of  returning  self-respect ;   and  strength,  the  strength  of  a 

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THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS   LITERATURE 

newborn  faith,  is  in  it.  The  next  day  this  "joy  of  Jehovah" 
was  expressed  in  spontaneous  form.  Having  found  in  their 
continued  reading  the  ordinance  of  the  Feast  of  Booths,  the 
old-time  joy  festival,  the  people  forthwith  gathered  boughs 
and  branches  of  trees,  erected  their  booths,  and  for  seven 
days  kept  the  feast  as  it  had  not  been  kept  since  the  time 
of  Joshua  the  son  of  Nun  (viii,  13-18).  Every  day,  too, 
the  law  was  read,  as  most  truly  a  part  of  the  feast. 

This  "  birthday  of  Judaism  "  was  of  course  only  a  birth- 
day, and  the  hazardous  period  of  infancy  and  youth  must 
naturally  follow.    Of  this,  with  its  vicissitudes  of 
Fruitage        good  and  bad  faith,  its  lapses  from  Puritan  stand- 
of  Ezra's        ards,  its  strifes  of  classes  and  parties,  its  secret 

Scholarship  .  .      ,  .,      ,  ... 

evasions  of  the  prescribed  order,  it  is  not  our 
part  here  to  speak  ;  a  masterly  account  of  it  may  be  found 
in  Mr.  Hunter's  book.^  Ezra  disappears  again  ;  the  fluctu- 
ations of  policy  and  sentiment  go  on  without  him  ;  and  it 
seems  not  unlikely  that  he  died  with  a  sense  of  personal 
neglect  and  failure.  But  his  work  and  influence  clung  and 
grew ;  since  Moses  the  most  vital  and  fundamental  element 
in  all  Judaism.  Without  his  judicious,  constructive,  scholarly 
handling,  the  body  of  Mosaic  statutes  and  ordinances  might 
have  remained  scattered  and  uncoordinate,  disjecta  membra 
of  a  code,  or  buried  in  forgotten  archives.  Without  his 
selective  and  organizing  genius  the  intimate  interactions  of 
history  and  divine  instruction  {tora/if  would  have  missed 
their  adequate  notice  and  record.  Yet  his  mind  was  essen- 
tially that  of  the  annalist  and  scribe ;  not  creative  except 
in  the  editorial  sense.  We  cannot  certainly  point  to  any 
inventive  composition  of  his,  like  that  of  the  prophets  and 

1  See  above,  p.  339,  footnote. 

2  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  Hebrew  word  torah,  which  we  too  narrowly 
translate  "  law,"  has  not  with  the  Jews  the  formal  and  magisterial  sense 
that  we  associate  with  the  term;  rather  it  is  "instruction,"  "direction," 
with  the  sense  of  personal  impartation  and  elucidation. 

.  [383] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

sages.  But  it  was  to  this  more  pedestrian  scribal  work  that 
the  Jewish  mind  was  now  tending ;  it  responded  eagerly  to 
such  methods  as  his,  Ezra  became  accordingly,  in  influence 
if  not  in  person,  the  founder  of  the  Jewish  order  of  sophcrim, 
or  scribes  ;  men  who  in  the  next  two  centuries  became  a 
dominant  class  in  the  Jewish  state,  oral  interpreters  and 
teachers  of  the  law,  the  men  whom,  with  the  Pharisees, 
we  find  in  the  New  Testament  "sitting  on  Moses'  seat" 
(cf.  Matt,  xxiii)  and  busied  with  legal  questions.  There  is  a 
Talmudic  tradition  —  not  historically  verifiable  —  of  a  "  Great 
Synagogue"  of  scribes,  scholars,  and  clerg)^,  whose  first 
president  was  Ezra,  and  whose  avowed  function  in  the  cul- 
tural life  of  Israel  was  briefly  summed  up  in  three  prescripts: 
"  Be  careful  in  pronouncing  judgment ;  make  many  disciples; 
set  a  hedge  about  the  law."  ^  One  may  be  uncertain  about 
the  formal  establishing  of  such  a  "Great  Synagogue"  — 
like  a  sort  of  Westminster  Assembly  —  so  soon  after  Ezra's 
advent  in  Jerusalem  ;  but  the  cultural  object  proposed  in 
these  rabbinical  precepts  became  a  very  prominent  element 
of  the  new  Judaism,  its  spirit  surviving  unabated  to  this 
day.  This  noble  manual  of  instruction,  brought  so  timely 
out  of  the  storied  past,  must  thenceforth,  as  was  felt,  be 
cherished,  elucidated,  made  familiar  to  all  classes,  yet  rever- 
ently hedged  about,  almost  like  an  object  of  worship,  lest 
any  profanation  or  fault  be  suffered  to  invade  it.  Such  at 
least  was  the  pious  yet  rigid  treatment  of  it,  as  centuries 
went  on,  at  the  hands  of  scribes,  priests,  and  rabbis.  With 
this  as  their  main  textbook,  these  learned  orders  became 
the  practical  arbiters  of  Judaism.  By  such  means  Ezra,  the 
"ready  scribe  in  the  law  of  Moses,"  came  to  rank  as  the 
second  great  lawgiver  of  the  nation,  the  man  whose  scholar- 
ship made  the  ancient  statutes  viable  for  later  conditions  of 
religion  and  life. 

1  Hunter,  "After  the  Exile,"  Vol.  II,  p.  293. 
[384] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS  LITERATURE 

II.    Legalism  and  its  Austerities 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Jewish  people,  with  whose 
literary  history  our   Book   II   is  dealing,  are   called    "  The 

People  of  a  Book,"  ^  —  the  book  in  question 
Horizon ^'^^^  being  the  Old  Testament  Scripture  as  a  whole. 
Seemingly      Up  to  the  time  of  the  scribes  the  materials  for 

that  book  had  been  accumulating,  in  the  more 
or  less  occasional  utterances  of  prophets,  poets,  and  sages ; 
but  toward  the  organic  fusion  of  these  into  the  unity  of  a 
canon,  or  library,'^  no  definite  steps  had  yet  been  taken.  In 
the  stage  of  Biblical  development  to  which  we  have  now 
reached  the  reason  for  this  is  apparent.  Ezra's  completed 
law  of  Moses,  which  both  for  its  chronological  significance 
and  its  paramount  importance  must  needs  stand  at  the  head 
of  such  a  canon,  had  just  come  to  its  own.  Its  speedy 
effect  was,  so  to  say,  to  precipitate  and  crystallize  into  form 
the  Jewish  religion' and  thought.  Thenceforth  its  body  of 
priestly  and  civic  ordinances  preempted  the  main  regard  of 
the  cultured  classes,  so  that  its  austere  influence  drew  in  the 
Jewish  mind  from  its  prophetic  aspirations  and  destinies  to 
a  Puritanic  regime  of  ecclesiastical  law.  It  is  to  the  somber 
dominance  of  this  influence,  prevailing  through  centuries  of 
the  scanty  history  from  the  times  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah 
onward,  that  by  modern  scholars  the  name  has  been  given, 
"  the  night  of  legalism," 

I 

The  Jewish  Mind  and  Mood.  Note  here  that  we  are  using 
the  term  "Jewish."  We  have  reached  the  point  where  this 
distinctively  applies.  It  is  the  Jew,  the  representative  of  the 
leading  tribe,  rather  than  the  more  liberal  Israelite  or  the 
more  primitive  Hebrew  that  we  have  mainly  in  mind  ;  for  we 
have  entered  the  atmosphere  of  matured  and  self-sufificient 

^  See  above,  pp.  251-253.  ^  As  outlined  above,  pp.  12-20. 

[385] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Judaism,  with  its  definitive  qualities  good  and  bad.  Do  not 
infer,  however,  that  these  quahties  are  engendered  by  the 
discipline  of  this  imported  law.  A  fair  consideration  of  the 
noble  Mosaic  code  with  its  attendant  history  disproves  this. 
We  must  take  into  account  the  native  Jewish  mind  and 
mood,  as  we  have  already  noted  its  tendencies,  and  as 
events  wrought  to  determine  its  attitude. 

Some  very  concrete  strokes  of  national  experience,  in 
fact,  tended  to  set  and  harden  the  mood  of  the  Jewish 
A  Sh  ed  clergy  in  their  zealous  enforcement  of  scribal  law. 
by  Conflicts  Chief  among  these,  perhaps,  the  first  at  least, 
an  vents  ^^^^  ^j^^  conflict  rising  out  of  the  marriage  situa- 
tion. Malachi,  in  prophetic  vein,  had  scored  the  Jewish 
nobility  for  their  treachery  in  deserting  the  wives  of  their 
youth  for  the  sake  of  desirable  foreign  alliances  (Mai.  ii, 
io-i6).i  Ezra,  coming  with  the  stern  ideas  of  racial  purity 
engendered  in  an  alien  land,  began  his  work  by  exacting 
an  oath  from  priests  and  Levites  to  put  away  their  foreign 
wives  (Ezra  x,  5-17).  Nehemiah,  coming  back  from  Baby- 
lon for  his  second  term  as  governor  (cf.  Neh.  xiii,  6),  added 
his  civil  power  to  clear  the  Temple  courts  of  all  foreign 
taint,  an  act  at  the  bottom  of  which  lay  numerous .  cases 
of  marriage  with  Gentiles,  notably  such  an  alliance  with  a 
member  of  the  High  Priestly  family  (Neh.  xiii,  1-9  ;  23-31). 
A  son  of  the  High  Priest,  who  was  son-in-law  to  Sanballat, 
the  governor  of  Samaria,  he  chased  from  his  presence 
(Neh,  xiii,  28).  The  sequel  is  not  told  in  Scripture;  but 
from  Josephus  ^  we  learn  that  the  degraded  priest,  with  a 
considerable  following  of  priests  and  Levites  who  had  married 
Gentile  women,  escaped  to  Samaria,  where  his  father-in-law 
enabled  him  to  set  up  a  rival  Temple  and  worship  on  Mount 
Gerizim,  —  the    cultus    to  which    the   woman    of    Samaria 

1  See  above,  p.  365. 

2  Josephus,  "Antiquities,"  xi,  8,  2;  Hunter,  "  After  the  Exile,"  Vol.  II, 
chap.  XV. 

[386] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS  LITERATURE 

belonged  (John  iv,  20-22)  and  the  remnants  of  which  exist 
to  this  day.  This  withdrawal  of  priests  greatly  confirmed 
the  tendency  of  the  Jews  to  racial  exclusiveness  and  pride. 
All  this  reacted  on  the  temper  of  leaders  and  people, 
enhancing  their  zealous  regard  for  the  law  of  Moses  ;  it 
increased  also  a  tendency,  already  native  to  the  Jewish  mind, 
to  make  their  cultus  too  mechanical  and  meticulous,  as 
we  see  by  the  way  the  law  was  handled  by  the  scribes 
and  Pharisees  of  Jesus'  time.  A  state  of  things  this,  very 
different  from  the  friendliness  to  strangers  and  sojourners 
enjoined  in  this  very  law  itself  (cf.  Lev.  xix,  33  ;  Num.  xv, 
14-16  ;  Deut.  X,  18,  19)  ;  different  too  from  the  ideal  urged 
by  the  prophets  that  Israel  should  be  a  people  hospitable, 
beloved,  attractive.^  The  larger  Israel  spoke  in  these  ;  it  is 
Judaism  that  speaks  now  in  tones  of  a  religion  that  is  becom- 
ing congealed  in  rites  and  ceremonies  and  that  is  hardening 
into  orthodoxy,  exclusiveness,  intolerance. 

Not  only  in  the  austere  circles  of  the  Temple  clergy  and 

the   scribes   but  among  the   people   at   large  this   matured 

spirit   of    Judaism    produced    momentous    effects 

an  Atmos-      t)oth  good  and  bad.    To  name  this  I  have  chosen 

phere  of         ^  modern  term  ;   the  thing  was  just  as  real  and 

Legalism  .         .  .  .  .     !  , 

pervasive  in  ancient  times  as  it  is  to-day.  It  is 
"  what  the  novelists  call  atmosphere,  that  emotional  and 
social  fluid  which  holds  the  separate  social  atoms  in  solu- 
tion." ^  Not  only  in  word  and  oath  but  in  unforced  opinion 
and  sentiment  the  general  response  to  Ezra's  Mosaic  law 
was  hearty,  eager,  loyal.  Further,  this  popular  response 
seems  to  have  been  not  to  something  entirely  new,  for  the 
people  recognized  and  reverenced  it  as  the  genuine  law 
of  Moses,  but  as  something  which,  till  then  only  vaguely 
apprehended,  had  now  come  to  common  appreciation  and 
understanding.    It  is  hard  to  see  how  this  remarkable  effect 

^  Cf.  above,  pp.  329,  330. 

2  Quoted  from  a  recent  literary  review. 

[387] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

could  have  been  brought  about  unless  we  adopt  some  such 
explanation  as  that  urged  by  Professor  Edouard  Naville.i 
who  holds  that  Ezra's  work  as  "  a  ready  scribe  in  the  law  of 
Moses  "  was  to  translate  (or  transcribe)  the  Mosaic  statutes 
from  the  cuneiform  in  which  they  were  originally  written 
into  the  literary  language  of  Palestine,  which  was  Aramaic, 
and  that  the  school  of  the  scribes,  his  helpers,  gave  oral 
interpretations  in  the  Judaic  speech,  the  dialect  of  Jerusalem 
and  its  environs.  This  seems  borne  out  by  the  manner  in 
which  the  law  was  read  and  interpreted,  Neh,  viii,  4  to  8, 
where  of  the  scribes  who  accompanied  Ezra  it  is  said, 
"  They  read  in  the  book,  in  the  law  of  God,  distinctly 
(literally,  "with  an  interpretation"),  and  they  gave  the  sense, 
so  that  they  understood  the  reading  "  (Neh.  viii,  8).  If  his 
view  is  correct,  we  have  here  a  striking  parallel  to  what 
took  place  in  Germany  by  Luther's  translation  of  the  Bible 
and  in  England  by  the  translations  culminating  in  the  King 
James  version.  The  Bible,  by  being  translated  into  every- 
day language,  was  made  a  common  people's  book,  and  the 
popular  response  followed.  So  it  seems  to  have  been  in 
the  years  following  Ezra.  The  law  was,  as  it  were,  released 
from  its  formal  and  academic  prison  and  through  the  work 
of  the  scribes  became  a  popular  educative  factor.  It  is  no 
wonder  then  that  it  created  an  atmosphere  of  legalism  which 
permeated  to  all  classes.  The  people  breathed  and  thought 
and  felt  in  the  idiom  of  torah,  of  instruction,  of  law. 

Do  not  imagine  this  atmosphere  of  legalism  as  a  medium 
merely  of  pedantry  and  formal  dignity  and  dreary  scribal 
distinctions.    There  was  plenty  of  this,  to  be  sure,  especially 

1  Professor  Naville's  views,  with  the  arguments  b)  which  they  are  set 
forth,  are  given  in  "  The  Text  of  the  Old  Testament,"  being  the  Schweich 
lectures  for  191 5.  The  part  relating  more  especially  to  Ezra's  services  and 
influence  begins  at  page  65,  but  as  Professor  Naville  goes  over  the  whole 
field  from  the  beginning  it  is  needless  to  say  his  book  necessitates  an 
entire  revision  of  the  current  ideas  of  the  Higher  Criticism  relating  to 
the  origin  of  the  early  Old  Testament  writings. 

[388] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS   LITERATURE 

in  the  academic  and  magisterial  circles,  and  it  produced  both 
its  dogmatisms  and  its  reactions.  But,  as  we  have  seen,  the 
Enter  the  word  tora/i,  which  our  word  "law"  only  inade- 
Pedagogue  quately  renders,  had  a  much  more  genial  and 
liberal  connotation  ;  it  meant  a  prime  asset  of  the  inner 
life,  round  every  aspect  of  which  (as  seen  in  its  wealth  of 
synonyms)  the  piety  and  affections  of  the  people  could 
cluster.  "Ye  shall  therefore  keep  my  statutes,  and  mine 
ordinances ;  which  if  a  man  do,  he  shall  live  in  them : 
I  am  Jehovah"  (Lev.  xviii,  5  ;  cf.  Ezek.  xx,  1 1  ;  Rom.  x,  5  ; 
Gal.  iii,  12),  —  such  was  its  essential  sanction,  felt  by  all. 
It  was  accepted  not  only  as  the  law  of  the  Temple  but  as 
the  law  of  the  heart.  This  we  can  see  from  the  way  it 
entered  into  the  Hebrew  sacred  poetry :  into  such  Psalms 
as  the  first,  which  describes  the  blessedness  of  the  godly 
observer ;  as  the  nineteenth,  which  sets  its  inwardness  side 
by  side  with  the  energizing  power  of  the  sun  and  the 
heavens ;  as  the  one  hundred  and  nineteenth,  an  elaborate 
acrostic  poem  one  hundred  and  seventy-six  verses  long,  every 
one  of  which  contains,  with  devout  ascriptions  of  praise, 
some  synonym  for  the  divinely  given  torah.  Such  was  its 
good  influence,  far  outweighing  its  austerities.  We  are  not 
to  judge  its  pervasive  effects  merely  by  the  way  it  was 
handled  by  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  of  Jesus'  tinie.  Its 
legalism  was  to  a  fundamental  degree  the  legalism  of  some- 
thing that  was  felt  to  be  "holy  and  just  and  good" 
(cf.  Rom.  vii,  12), 

Note.  One  can  see  how  thoroughly  the  spirit  of  a  devout  legalism 
had  permeated  the  finer  mind  of  the  people  by  noting  the  wealth  of 
synonyms  introduced  into  this  Psalm  cxix.  The  acrostic  form  of  this 
Psalm,  being  apparently  the  form  adopted  by  Hebrew  writers  for  espe- 
cially weighty  and  finished  verse,  is  of  course  very  characteristic;  but 
even  more  intimately  so  is  the  continual  recurrence  of  the  words  "law," 
"testimonies,"  "precepts,"  "statutes,"  "commandments,"  "word," 
"judgments,"  "ordinances,"  all  these  attributed  direcdy  to  the  mind 
of  God. 

[  389  ] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

The  zeal  and  diligence  of  scribes  and  rabbis  through  this 
Puritan  era  to  make  the  law  viable  prompts  to  a  further 
remark  about  its  ultimate  function.  They  builded  better 
than  they  knew.  We  have  seen  how  prophecy,  ranging 
through  conditions  and  crises  to  come,  focused  in  a  Per- 
sonage, who  was  to  be  a  Prince  of  peace,  an  Ensign  of 
the  peoples,  a  Davidic  Shepherd  and  King,  yet  a  self- 
sacrificed  Servant  of  Jehovah,  at  whom  kings  would  shut 
their  mouth.  To  point  the  way  to  him  was  the  supreme 
function  of  prophecy.  What  of  the  supreme  function  of 
law.?  Was  it  the  end  of  ordered  life,  or  a  means  to.  the 
end  ?  Its  use  at  the  hands  of  its  multitude  of  teachers  as 
a  working-tool  for  righteousness  suggests  the  answer,  which, 
indeed,  in  another  way  coincides  with  the  grand  solution  of 
prophecy.  Law  is  essentially  unfinal,  —  not  an  end  but  a 
means.  Teachers  of  rules  and  bans  are  not  for  the  adult 
and  self-directive  but  for  minors  and  immature,  —  for  such 
as  have  not  reached  the  ripeness  of  character  prophesied 
by  Jeremiah  (cf.  Jer.  xxxi,  34).  St.  Paul,  whose  interpre- 
tation of  the  function  of  law  was  fundamental,  takes  this 
view  of  it.  "The  law,"  he  says,  "is  become  our  tutor  — 
our  pedagogue  —  to  bring  us  unto  Christ,  that  we  might 
be  justified  by  faith "  ;  that  is,  cease  to  be  minors  and 
schoolboys,  having  reached  our  majority  in  self-mastery 
(Gal.  iii,  24;  cf.  iv,  1-5  ;  Eph.  iv,  13,  14).  With  him,  of 
course,  that  means  Christian  inwardness  and  adultness.  Thus 
in  the  great  Biblical  movement  law  and  prophecy  are  set 
to  a  wonderful  teamwork  looking  to  the  same  end.  And 
the  creation  of  a  diffused  atmosphere,  a  pervasive  sentiment 
and  veneration,  by  which  men  are  subconsciously  controlled, 
is  its  capital  contribution  to  the  promotion  of  this  end.  So 
the  atmosphere  of  legalism,  in  this  good  sense,  is  a  healthy 
atmosphere,  as  far  as  it  goes. 

With  this  estimate  of  Judaism  duly  in  mind,  we  are  ready 
to  consider  the  literature  characteristic  of  what  we  have  called 

[390] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS  LITERATURE 

the  Puritan  era.  Let  us  begin  with  its  main  Hterary  factor, 
which,  though  not  the  creation  of  this  era,  is  its  most 
influential  heritage. 

II 

The  Completed  Pentateuch.  As  designating  the  bpok  that 
Ezra  brought  up  with  him  from  Babylon,  we  have  thus 
far  assumed  merely  the  Biblical  name,  "the  book  of  the 
law  of  Moses,  which  Jehovah  had  commanded  to  Israel " 
(cf.  Neh.  viii,  i).  It  was  indeed  that,  but  it  was  more. 
The  law  in  its  more  specific  sense,  as  being  the  first  ele- 
ment applied  to  conditions  in  Jerusalem,  was  at  once  recog- 
nized as  the  book's  characterizing  feature.  But  along  with 
its  various  codes  (for  there  were  several)  were  given  detailed 
accounts  of  its  origin,  motive,  and  occasion,  a  spacious 
historical  setting  in  fact,  beginning  with  primitive  and  patri- 
archal times  and  extending  continuously  to  the  death  of 
Moses.  In  other  words,  it  is  quite  certain  that  Ezra's  book 
was  the  completed  Pentateuch,  or  five  books  of'  Moses, 
which  the  Jews  later  called  "  the  five  fifths  of  the  law." 

Note.  The  name  "  Pentateuch  "  (from  Greek  penta,  pente,  "  five," 
and  teuchos,  lit.  "  tool  "  or  "  implement,"  later  "  book  "),  which  was 
adopted  by  Christian  scholars  as  early  as  Tertullian  and  Origen,  merely 
recognizes  the  first  five  books  of  the  Bible  as  the  Jews  did  in  their 
"  five  fifths  of  the  law."  The  word  has  been  supplanted  in  modern 
critical  scholarship  by  the  term  "  Hexateuch  "  {hex,  hexa),  the  Book  of 
Joshua  being  added  on  account  of  its  source  relations,  similar  to  those  of 
the  Pentateuch.  For  the  legal  and  literary  relations,  however,  the  five- 
book  division,  ending  with  the  completed  Law  and  the  death  of  the  great 
Lawgiver  and  Prophet,  yields  a  more  natural  and  logical  classification. 

The  book  that  Ezra  brought  from  Babylon,  functioning 
as  the  completed  Law  of  Moses,  was  not  so  much  a  new 
book  as  a  new  edition  adapted  to  new  needs  and  uses. 
From  unknown  periods  its  component  parts  had  been  in 
the  making ;  had  responded  in  their  times  to  contemporary 

[391  ] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

conditions  and  produced  contemporary  effects.  That  is  why 
its  new  effect  in  Ezra's  time  was  so  pronounced  and  imme- 
^  diate.  It  struck,  so  to  speak,  the  native  chord 
Sources  and  of  Judaism,  in  harmony  with  its  deep  national 
Authorship  gpirit  and  idea.  Hence  its  power  to  act  from 
that  time  forth  as  an  organic  whole,  a  potent  and  unitary 
factor  in  the  cultural  life  of  the  Jews, 

The  evident  fact,  however,  that  its  subject  matter  is  so 
composite,  with  peculiar  traits  of  style  differentiating  its 
various  parts,  has  in  modern  times  wrought  to  obscure  its 
unitary  and  homogeneous  effect.  The  Pentateuch  problem, 
with  its  prevailing  assumption  that  Moses  was  not  the  author 
of  any  part  of  it,  has  in  his  place  put  numerous  theories 
and  conjectures  of  sources,  dates,  authors,  redactors,  and 
the  like,  theories  the  exploitation  of  which  has  produced  a 
prodigious  amount  of  ink-shed.  This  problem  was  the  first 
and  perhaps  greatest  battleground  of  the  so-oalled  Higher 
Criticism  ;  for  which  reason  we  cannot  well  evade  it,  though 
it  concerns  us  only  indirectly.  Some  of  its  results  will 
remain,  whether  they  will  bulk  so  large  as  once  seemed 
likely  or  not.  Now  that  the  battle  has  passed  on  to  other 
issues  we  need  only  remark  here  that  it  is  rather  an  academic 
than  a  vital  matter,  dealing  with  externalities  of  the  like  of 
which  the  people  of  Ezra's  time,  to  whom  the  completed 
Law  first  came,  had  not  the  smallest  heed  or  conception. 
To  them  this  history,  with  its  venerable  covenants  and  its 
motived  ordinances,  was  as  if  the  voice  of  the  great  Law- 
giver himself  were  sounding  across  the  centuries  to  them. 
Accordingly  their  book  meant  infinitely  more  to  them  than 
if  they  had  been  critically  minded.  They  thought  and  acted 
as  if  their  ancient  records  were  authentic.  It  did  not  occur 
to  them  to  call  things  in  question. 

Nor  had  it  so  occurred  to  Ezra.  So  far  as  appears,  his 
work  was  not  creative  and  original  but  editorial,  the  work 
of  the  scholar  and  scribe.     In  dealing  with  his  composite 

[  392  ] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS   LITERATURE 

material  his  was  the  genius  of  selection,  coordination,  pro- 
portion, and  on  the  whole  we  cannot  forbear  to  call  it  mas- 
terly. It  is  his  distinction  to  have  unearthed  and  assembled 
these  divers  deposits  of  story,  genealogy,  ritual,  statistic,  and 
statute,  and  to  have  fused  them  together  into  a  single  con- 
tinuous narrative,  a  motived  and  organized  history.  Of  this 
work  no  trait  is  more  conspicuous  than  his  conscientious 
fidelity  to  the  integrity  of  his  sources,  his  care  to  reproduce 
the  ancient  writings  just  as  they  were,  without  attempting 
to  reconcile  discrepancies  or  determine  degrees  of  authen- 
ticity. That  is  why  they  preserve  their  old-time  flavor,  why, 
indeed,  modern  students  can  dissect  them  at  all. 

Note.  Several  general  subjects  relating  to  the  formative  period  of 
the  Biblical  literature,  already  discussed,  derive  their  significance  for  the 
most  part  from  the  stories  of  the  Pentateuch.  How  that  literature  reflects 
the  genius  of  a  specially  gifted  race  we  have  considered,  pp.  31-33. 
What  inherited  fund  of  ideas  the  Israelites  had  on  their  entrance  to 
Canaan  we  have  traced  in  outline,  pp.  46-56.  What  main  Hnes  of 
source  story,  with  their  alleged  elements  of  folk  tale,  myth,  and  legend, 
are  held  by  modern  scholars  to  underlie  the  early  Biblical  narratives, 
we  have  discussed,  pp.  109-123.    See  also  pp.  70,  71. 

Without  going  into  the  conjectural  minutiae  of  the  Penta- 
teuch problem  we  may  note  two  strains  of  literary  treatment 
rather  intimately  blended  together  yet  quite  clearly 
strain  Separable.     These  are  largely  represented,  espe- 

Merged  daily  before  the  deliverance  from  Egypt,  in  the 

in  One  ,.^  ^  ,  .  ,  , 

dmerent  elements  of  source  story  already  out- 
lined.^ In  the  first,  which  flows  along  in  artless  and  limpid 
personal  narrative,  we  trace  the  so-called  Jehovistic  and 
Elohistic  elements,  which  for  our  purpose  may  be  regarded 
as  one  underlying  tissue.  In  the  second,  wherein  the  treat- 
ment is  more  formal  and  systematic,  we  trace  the  so-called 
Priestly  and  Deuteronomic  elements,  which,  true  to  the  schol- 
arly impulse,  are  concerned  with  ordered  historical  annals, 

1  See  above,  pp.  109-1 14. 
[393] 


GUIDEBOQK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

with  their  scribal  framework  of  chronology,  genealogy,  tabula- 
tion, and  the  like.  The  difference  between  these  two  lines  of 
treatment  doubtless  goes  back  to  their  respective  derivations 
from  oral  and  written  sources,  the  latter  probably  being  largely 
cuneiform,  as  was  the  ancient  manner  of  permanent  record. 

Note.  For  remarks  on  the  distinction  between  the  spoken  and  the 
written  elements  of  Biblical  tradition,  see  above,  pp.  13-16.  An  outline 
sketch  of  the  Pentateuch  story  is  given  above,  on  pages  i  oS,  1 09. 

Let  us  note,  in  some  leading  features  of  these  two  strains, 
how  they  interact  with  each  other  to  form  the  literary  tissue 
identified  with  the  mind  of  Moses. 

In  the  underlying  current  of  J  and  E  narratives  leading 
up  to  the  covenant  at  Sinai  v^'e  read  the  simple  ideas  of 
„  primitive  and  patriarchal   life,   before  the  period 

Web  of  Per-  of  Organic  law  and  cultus  was  inaugurated,  and 
sonai  story  yyj^j|g  ^g  yg^-  human  nature  was,  as  it  were,  explor- 
ing the  rudiments  of  custom  and  character.  As  to  style, 
this  line  of  narrative,  meant  for  common  people,  is  pitched 
in  the  folk  tone  adapted  to  the  common  mind,  and  as  to 
substance,  it  moves  among  domestic  and  family  affairs. 
Beginning  (Gen.  ii)  with  the  primitive  conjugal  pair  and 
their  spiritual  equipment  for  life,  it  narrates  their  ominous 
and  doubtful  outset, 

Life's  business  being  just  the  terrible  choice, 

and  the  lawless  conduct,  through  generations,  of  their  head- 
strong offspring  (Adam  to  Noah)  ;  goes  onward  through  the 
experiences  of  a  family  line  steadied  and  elevated  by  a  high 
motive  and  loyalty  (Abraham  and  the  patriarchs)  ;  until  at 
length  we  find  them,  a  goodly  circle  of  tribal  chiefs,  receiving 
the  dying  blessing  of  their  father,  the  grandson  of  Abraham, 
Here  the  web  of  familiar  story  is  broken  for  a  period  of 
some  four  hundred  and  thirty  years  (cf.  Ex.  xii,  40),  and 
resumed  in  a  less  continuous  way.  This  whole  pre-Mosaic 
line  is  full  of  native  simplicity  and  charm,  with  a  haunting 

[394] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS  LITERATURE 

symbolism,  as  it  were  a  lesson  without  the  pose  of  the 
teacher,  in  every  event.  I  have  called  it  personal  because 
for  the  most  part  it  centers  in  notable  personages,  a  succes- 
sion of  ancient  worthies,  whose  lives  were  pivotal  for  the 
normal  and  wholesome  progress  of  mankind.  Not  that  they 
are  set  up  as  models ;  their  personality  is  portrayed  m  its 
native  worth  and  weakness,  its  spiritual  clearness  and  dim- 
ness, as  it  reacts  on  the  inner  issues  of  life.  In  a  beadroll 
of  these  worthies  drawn  up  by  a  New  Testament  writer 
(see  Heb.  xi)  the  common  motive  and  ideal  that  actuated  all 
their  lives,  giving  a  noble  meaning  to  this  line  of  biography, 
is  named  faith,  and  honored  as  a  sturdy  confidence  and 
courage  which  girded  them  to  press  onward  toward  their 
soul's  home  (cf.  Heb.  xi,  14)  without  attaining,  yet  without 
flinching.  We  need  not  try  to  better  this  interpretation. 
It  names  the  stimulating  and  refining  power  that  one  feels 
in  reading  these  stories  of  the  early  Semitic  world.  It  is 
the  forward  reach  of  an  aspiring  humanity. 

Closely   inwoven   from   the   beginning   with   this  web   of 
personal  story,  and  supplementary  of   it,  are  sections  and 

passages  in  another  vein  and  coloring,  to  which 
Material  into  sections  has  been  given  the  name  of  the  Priestly 
Historic         element  (P).     Why  so   called  will   appear   later. 

This  element  bears  the  marks  of  the  scholar  and 
scribe.  Its  style  is  to  a  degree  grave  and  formal,  the  finest 
specimen  of  it  being  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  whose 
sublimity  is  rather  of  the  subject  matter  than  of  the  style. 
Through  the  rest  of  this  book,  however,  this  element  is 
quite  intercalary,  supplying  as  it  does  the  chronological  and 
genealogical  framework  on  which  the  web  of  story  is  unfolded. 
In  the  Book  This  function  of  it  is  made  a  marked  feature, 
of  Genesis  Introduced  at  the  fitting  chronological  intervals 
it  goes  according  to  a  series  of  "generations  "  {toledoth,  lit. 
"  begettings  "),  which,  beginning  pn  the  cosmic  scale  of  the 
heavens  and  the  earth,  gradually  draw  in  the  created  masses 

[395] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

of  humanity  from  their  world-wide  distribution  to  the  Semitic 
stock,  and  to  the  Hebrew  'family  of  which  Abraham  was 
the  ancestral  type  ;  ending  with  the  tribal  chiefs  begotten  by 
Jacob-Israel,  Abraham's  distinguished  grandson.  Thus  is 
laid  the  foundation,  so  to  say,  of  the  chosen  race  with  which 
the  whole  Old  Testament  has  to  do  ;  "  who  are  Israelites, 
whose  is  the  adoption,  and  the  glory,  and  the  covenants, 
and  the  giving  of  the  law,  and  the  service,  and  the  promises  ; 
whose  are  the  fathers,  and" — not  to  omit  the  New  Testa- 
ment share  —  "  of  whom  is  Christ  as  concerning  the  flesh  " 
(Rom.  ix,  4,  5).    The  whole  Biblical  basis  is  laid  here. 

Note.  The  following  is  the  notation  of  the  concentrative  "  gen- 
erations "  : 

Gen.  ii,  4.  "  These  are  the  generations  of  the  heavens  and  of  the 
earth  when  they  were  created,  in  the  day  that  Jehovah  God  made  earth 
and  heaven." 

Gen.  V,  I.    "  This  is  the  book  of  the  generations  of  Adam." 

Gen.  vi,  9.    "  These  are  the  generations  of  Noah." 

Gen.  X,  I.    "  Now  these  are  the  generations  of  the  sons  of  Noah." 

Gen.  xi,  10.    "  These  are  the  generations  ot  Shcm." 

Gen.  xi,  27.  "  Now  these  are  the  generations  of  Terah.  Terah 
begat  Abram,"  etc. 

Gen.  XXV,  12.  "Now  these  are  the  generations  of  Ishmael,  Abra- 
ham's son,  whom  Hagar  the  Egyptian,  vSarah's  handmaid,  bare  unto 
Abraham." 

Gen.  XXV,  19.  "And  these  are  the  generations  of  Isaac,  Abra- 
ham's son." 

Gen.  xxxvi,  i.  "  Now  these  are  the  generations  of  Esau  (the  same 
is  Edom)." 

Gen.  xxxvi,  9.  "And  these  are  the  generations  of  Esau,  the  father 
of  the  Edomites  in  Mount  Seir."' 

Gen.  xxxvii,  2.    "  These  are  the  generations  of  Jacob." 

It  will  be  observed  that  in  two  cases  collateral  lines  are  introduced 
(Ishmael,  Edom),  lines  with  which  the  Israelites  were  closely  related  in 
kindred  and  location.  To  these  may  be  added,  in  less  formal  mention, 
the  sons  of  Lot.  Abraham's  nephew,  from  whom  came  the  Moabitcs 
and  Ammonites  (xix,  37);  the  line  of  Nahor,  Abraham's  brother,  whence 
came  Isaac's  wife  Kebekah  fnxii,  20-24);  and  the  sons  of  Keturah, 
Abraham's  second  wife  (xxv,  1-4). 

[396] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS   LITERATURE 

The  legendary  ^  stories  of  primitives  and  patriarchs,  as 
told  in  Genesis,  to  which  the  scribal  framework  of  genealogy- 
has  given  a  loose  historical  sequence,  are  after  all  only  the 
vestibule  to  Ezra's  Pentateuch  history.  As  such,  however, 
they  are  to  be  fairly  reckoned  with,  not  discarded  as  pre- 
historic as  is  the  manner  of  some.  Though  not  of  a  nature 
to  be  verified  by  official  documents,  they  portray  the  sterling 
Hebrew  soul,  the  racial  principle  from  which  the  later  Jewish 
people  derived  name  and  pride  of  race  and  persistency 
of  inner  freedom  (cf.  John  viii,  33).  And  this  is  much;  is, 
indeed,  what  makes  the  succeeding  history  possible.  These 
engaging  stories  are  not  to  be  deemed  prehistoric ;  rather, 
they  throb  with  the  nerve,  the  vigor,  the  native  spirit  of  the 
history  that  with  the  deliverance  from  Egypt  is  wakened 
to  open  movement. 

Accordingly,  with  this  pre-Mosaic  approach  made,  the  rest 
of  the  Pentateuch,  from  the  opening  of  the  Book  of  Exodus 
In  the  Pour    o^^^ard,  recounts  this  momentous  period  of  history 
Succeeding     in  a  single  unbroken  narrative.    In  saying  this 
°°  ^  we  do  not  forget  that  the  Books  of  Leviticus  and 

Deuteronomy  belong  to  the  compiler's  scheme.  In  his  sense 
of  literary  values  the  moving  and  vivid  elements  dear  to  the 
story-teller  are  not  dissociable  from  the  clerkly  details  habit- 
ual to  the  scribe.  All  is  fish  that  comes  to  Ezra's  priestly 
and  scholarly  net.  Details  of  all  sorts  —  genealogy,  tribal 
organization,  tabernacle  and  its  furnishing,  dedicatory  serv- 
ice, itineraries  —  are  catalogued  in  full  wherever  they  belong 
in  the  story ;  while  the  story  itself,  its  events  and  incidents 
varying  in  amount  and  frequency,  is  always  more  or  less  in 
sight  to  give  the  sense  of  a  living  background.  Thus  the 
law  which  Ezra  brought  from  Babylon  for  the  uses  of  his 
generation  was  not  a  cut-and-dried  code  but  the  report  of  a 
series  of  law-g-wm^s,  with  the  circumstances  in  each  case 

1  The  warrant  for  using  the  word  "  legendary  "  may  be  gathered  from 
what  is  said  above,  pp.  ii8,  119. 

[397] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

narrated  ;  whether  by  the  audible  voice  of  God  (cf.  Ex.  xx, 
22),  by  Jehovah's  words  engraved  on  stone  tablets  (xxxi,  i8  ; 
xxxiv,  i),  by  directions  received  from  God  and  given  out 
from  a  "tent  of  meeting  "  (xxxiii,  7  ;  xxxiv,  34  ;  Lev.  i,  i), 
or  by  the  aged  lawgiver's  resume  of  his  people's  experience 
and  its  avails  made  as  a  farewell  address  and  recorded  in  a 
book  for  preservation  (Deut.  i,  3  ;  xxxi,  24-26).  In  each 
case  the  legislation  was  made  impressive  by  its  occasion,  by 
the  circumstances  holy,  awesome,  sublime,  which  connected 
the  substance  of  the  law  with  the  mind  of  God.  Thus  also 
it  came  about  that  the  word  once  given  did  not  become 
obsolete,  that  laws  and  ordinances  purporting  to  have  been 
made  for  a  wilderness  people,  for  nomads  with  a  settled 
home  only  in  promise  and  worshiping  in  a  portable  sanctu- 
ary, were  received  centuries  after  as  valid  for  all  time  and 
applied  to  the  refined  uses  of  government  and  Temple. 
The  rugged  lesson  of  their  ancient  history,  accepted  by  a 
people  to  whom  history  was  prophetic,  became  thenceforth 
the  sacred  law  of  life. 

Note.  It  is  taken  as  an  assured  result  of  modern  criticism  that  the 
various  stages  of  the  Mosaic  Law  were  the  product  of  a  historic  develop- 
ment extending  through  ages  of  national  life ;  of  which  development 
the  Book  of  Deuteronomy  represents  a  stage  dating  from  about  Manas- 
seh's  time  and  adapted  to  conditions  prevailing  during  Josiah's  reign, 
virhen  the  book  was  found  in  the  Temple ;  ^  and  the  Book  of  Leviticus 
represents  the  latest  stage,  a  code  of  legislation  designed  and  adapted 
to  the  Priestly  uses  of  the  Second  Temple  and  the  Jewish  hierarchical 
state.  That  is  to  say,  by  modern  scholarship  the  origin  of  the  law  is 
closely  connected  in  time  with  its  publication  and  administration.  How 
this  affects  Ezra's  estimate  of  his  sources,  not  to  say  the  good  faith  of 
his  report,  we  leave  here  undiscussed ;  it  is  not  our  problem.  His  ac- 
count of  the  matter,  however,  with  which  we  are  here  concerned,  derives 
the  Law  in  its  various  stages  from  the  masterly  mind  of  Moses,  or  rather 
from  Jehovah  through  Moses  as  mediator;  he  makes  it  all,  accordingly, 
the  product  of  that  single  generation  of  "  trial  in  the  wilderness  "  when 
Israel  was  on  the  way  to  Canaan. 

1  See  "  The  Book  Found  in  the  Temple,"  pp.  220-228,  above. 
[398] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  TrS   LITERATURE 

The  Pentateuchal  grouping  of  the  laws  seems  to  fall  under  the 
events  of  three  places  or  occasions,  each  with  its  historical  situation 
to  correspond. 

1.  Lev.  xxvii,  34.  "These  are  the  commandments  which  Jehovah 
commanded  Moses  for  the  children  of  Israel  in  Mount  Sinai."  Under 
these  is  comprised  the  main  body  of  the  first  legislation.  It  begins  with 
the  "  Ten  words,"  a  mnemonic  epitome  of  moral  obligation,  spoken 
under  very  sublime  and  impressive  circumstances  from  the  cloud  at 
Sinai  and  afterward  written  upon  stone  (Ex.  xx,  1-21  =  Deut.  v,  4-23). 
To  these  were  added,  as  given  to  Moses  on  the  same  occasion,  certain 
"ordinances"  or  "judgments"  (xxi-xxiii,  19),  principles  of  common 
law  as  between  "a  man  and  his  brother"  (cf.  Deut.  i,  16),  which  ordi- 
nances were  solemnly  agreed  to  and  ratified  by  the  people  (xxiv,  3-8). 
Following  upon  this,  while  Moses  was  alone  with  God  forty  days  and 
forty  nights,  and  Aaron  and  the  priests  were  waiting  outside  the  cloud, 
were  the  directions  given  for  building  and  furnishing  the  tabernacle 
(xxv-xxx)  "  according  to  the  pattern  shown  in  the  mount  "  (xxv,  40  ; 
cf.  Heb.  viii,  5).  Then  after  the  account  of  the  building  of  the  taber- 
nacle has  intervened  (xxxv-xl),  the  Levitical  ordinances,  relating  to 
both  worship  and  civic  administration,  are  given  by  Moses  from  the 
"  tent  of  meeting  "  (Lev.  i-xxvii). 

2.  Num.  xxxvi,  13.  "These  are  the  commandments  and  the  ordi- 
nances which  Jehovah  commanded  by  Moses  unto  the  children  of  Israel 
in  the  plains  of  Moab  by  the  Jordan  at  Jericho."  This  seems  to  refer 
to  the  various  ordinances  and  statutes  made  for  the  emergencies  of  the 
turbulent  wilderness  experience  of  a  newly  emancipated  people  during 
forty  years  of  wandering,  laws  rising  out  of  new  occasions  and  admin- 
istered by  Moses  as  magistrate. 

3.  Deut.  i,  I.  "These  are  the  words  which  Moses  spake  unto  all 
Israel  beyond  the  Jordan  in  the  wilderness."  Comprised  in  the  Book 
of  Deuteronomy,  these  "  words  "  are  the  wonderful  farewell  of  Moses 
to  his  people,  in  which  by  a  series  of  hortatory  addresses,  like  the 
counsels  of  a  father  to  children,  he  epitomizes  their  wilderness  history 
(i-iii) ;  recounts  in  popular  form  the  statutes  and  ordinances  that  condi- 
tion a  loyal  and  orderly  life,  in  the  fear  of  God  and  in  the  wise  art  of 
living  with  others  (v-xxx) ;  and  ends  with  a  song  (xxxii)  and  a  blessing 
(xxxiii) ;  after  which,  as  bidden  by  Jehovah,  he  climbs  Mount  Nebo  and, 
dying,  is  buried  by  Jehovah  in  an  unknown  sepulcher  (xxxiv,  5,  6). 

Thus  in  this  closing  book  are  gathered  the  legal,  historical,  and 
spiritual  values  of  the  whole  Pentateuch,  giving  it  a  noble  unity  and 
purpose.  It  has  already  been  characterized  as  "  one  of  the  most  potent 
and  far-reaching  books  of  all  time."    See  above,  p.  227. 

[399] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Let  us  now  try  to  sum  up  briefly  the  permanent  signifi- 
cance of  this  Pentateuch,  that  literary  merger  of  old-time 
stories  and  lessons  which,  brought  from  the  scribal  work- 
shops of  Chaldea  to  Jerusalem,  marked  by  its  loyal  adoption 
the  birthday  of  a  matured  Judaism.^  What  is  the  source  of 
its  power  ?  what  its  ruling  idea  ? 

The  Pentateuch  as  a  whole  is  a  pivotal  product.  On  it 
the  literary  and  spiritual  values  of  the  past  turn  to  become 
a.u  i;.  J         values   of   the   future.      It   deals   with    the   vital 

The  End 

in  the  elements  that  lie  at  the  roots  of  manhood  being. 

Beginning      ^j^^^  -^  ^j^^  -^  ^^^^^^  ^^  ^^^  ^ead  of  the  Hebrew 

canon  ;  why  in  the  Bible  as  a  record  of  inner  development 
it  should  be  read  first.^  Drawing  from  the  rude  conditions 
of  primeval,  patriarchal,  and  nomadic  life,  its  completion 
comes  to  a  nation  long  conversant  with  the  civilized  and 
religious  customs  of  the  world.  Nor  only  that :  it  will  be 
remembered  that  their  prophetic  movement  was  over,  with 
its  literary  results  available,  and  when  their  recognition  of 
historical  records  from  Moses  onward  was  at  least  in  the 
making.'^  Underneath  all  this  Ezra's  book  lays,  as  it  were, 
a  foundation,  supplying  the  substructure  of  venerable  tradi- 
tion in  its  stages  of  growth  from  inchoate  relations  to  a 
law  of  life  adapted  to  all  spiritual  and  communal  needs 
(cf.  Lev.  xviii,  5  ;  Ezek.  xx,  11;  Gal.  iii,  12).  Viewed  in 
this  light  the  Pentateuch  reads  less  like  an  austere-  code  of 
law  than  like  a  living  epic.  It  was  with  some  such  feeling, 
I  think,  that  the  people  of  Ezra's  time  gave  fervent  alle- 
giance to  it.  In  some  ways  it  was  stern  and  uncompromis- 
ing ;  had  to  be  for  a  people  so  stiff-necked  as  the  Israelites 
always  were  (cf.  Ex.  xxxiii,  3,  5  ;  Isa.  xlviii,  4)  ;  in  some 
things  too  it  left  unerased  the  crude  and  cruel  relics  of  an 
outworn  past  (cf.,  for  instance,  Deut.  vii,  1,2;  xx,  17).  But 
through  it  all  runs  a  felt  current  of  gracious  purpose  ;  and 
over  it,  felt  especially  in  the  culminating  book  Deuteronomy, 

1  See  above,  p.  381.      2  Cf.  above,  p.  20.      '^  See  above,  p.  377. 

[  400  J • 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS   LITERATURE 

hovers  like  a  father's  benediction  the  mighty  personahty  of 
Moses,  the  most  Christhke  figure  of  the  Old  Testament  (cf. 
Ex.  xxxii,  32  ;  Num.  xii,  3  ;  Deut.  xxxiv,  10).  One  can  realize 
this  vividly  as  one  reads  his  words  :  "  Behold,  I  have  taught 
you  statutes  and  ordinances,  even  as  Jehovah  my  God  com- 
manded me,  that  ye  should  do  so  in  the  midst  of  the  land 
whither  ye  go  in  to  possess  it.  Keep  therefore  and  do 
them  ;  for  this  is  your  wisdom  and  your  understanding  in 
the  sight  of  the  peoples,  that  shall  hear  all  these  statutes, 
and  say,  '  Surely  this  great  nation  is  a  wise  and  understand- 
ing people.'  For  what  great  nation  is  there,  that  hath  a 
god  so  nigh  unto  them,  as  Jehovah  our  God  is  whensoever 
we  call  upon  him .?  And  what  great  nation  is  there  that 
hath  statutes  and  ordinances  so  righteous  as  all  this  law, 
which  I  set  before  you  this  day  ?  "  (Deut.  iv,  5-8).  There 
was  a  power  in  this  law,  both  personal  and  institutional, 
which  the  nation  could  neither  ignore  nor  outgrow.  It  came 
to  them  as  a  lure  of  manhood. 

What  then  was  its  ruling  idea,  the  nucleal  beginning  in 
which  lay  the  power  of  the  end  .?  We  look  at  its  central 
ordinance,  that  digest  of  commandments  that  can  be  counted 
on  the  ten  fingers^  (the  "Ten  words,"  Ex.  xx,  Deut.  v), 
and  at  first  thought  they  look  like  mere  prohibitions,  what 
not  to  do.  But  do  they  not  thereby  do  human  nature  the 
honor  of  taking  for  granted  that  men,  the  negative  barriers 
removed,  will  go  on  to  do  the  positive  good  of  their  own 
motion  ?  That  is  how  Moses  seems  to  regard  it  when,  after 
his  D^teronomic  recounting  of  the  ten  words,  he  goes  on 
to  give  its  spiritual  appeal  in  its  attitude  toward  God.  "  Hear, 
O  Israel,"  he  says;  "the  Lord  our  God,  the  Lord  is  one. 
And  thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart, 
and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  might  "  -  (Deut.  vi,  4). 
He  resolves  it  into  a  commandment  of  love,  —  a  positive 

1  See  above,  p.  55. 

^  I  use  here  the  wording  of  the  Jewish  "  new  translation,"  1917. 

[401] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

relation  only  possible  to  the  inner  life.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  our  Lord,  on  being  asked  for  the  "great  command- 
ment," takes  this  up  as  the  first  and  then,  with  hearty 
approval  from  his  hearer,  adds  its  complement  ("  like  unto 
it ")  the  commandment  of  love  to  neighbor,  enlarged  to 
universal  application  from  Leviticus  xix,  i8  :  "Thou  shalt 
not  take  vengeance,  nor  bear  any  grudge  against  the  chil- 
dren of  thy  people,  but  thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself  "1  (cf.  Matt,  xxii,  34-40;  Mark  xii,  28-31  ;  Luke  x, 
25-28),  Such  is  the  end  already  germinal  in  the  beginning : 
the  law  of  love  enjoined  on  man  in  the  magnificent  faith 
that  it  is  in  him  to  love.  The  summary  given  by  Jesus 
made, it  a  supreme  truth  of  Scripture  teaching.  "  On  these 
two  commandments,"  he  said,  "  the  whole  law  hangeth,  and 
the  prophets  "  (Matt,  xxii,  40).  The  response  he  received, 
too,  acknowledged  such  love,  Godward  and  manward,  as 
"  much  more  than  all  whole  burnt  offerings  and  sacrifices  " 
(Mark  xii,  33).  Nor  should  we  omit  St.  Paul's  tribute  to 
the  second  table  of  the  law  in  Romans  xiii,  8-10  :  ""  Love 
worketh  no  ill  to  his  neighbor ;  love  therefore  is  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  law."  Whatever  more  it  does,  the  positive 
good  will  insures  the  negative  abstinence  from  ill. 

Note.  The  germ  of  this  highest  reach  of  law  and  life  is  traceable, 
far  back  of  the  commandments,  to  the  first  created  man,  —  a  truth 
which  has  been  needlessly  obscured  by  the  usurping  notion  of  original 
sin  and  its  resulting  ruin.  When  God,  who  is  love  (i  John  iv,  8,  16), 
created  man  in  His  own  image,  He  endowed  that  likeness  with  that 
freedom  of  intelligent  will  and  choice  —  a  freedom  not  without#remen- 
dous  risks  (Gen.  ii,  16-17)  —  by  which  alone  his  answering  love  could  be 
genuine;  and,  as  a  further  promotive,  with  that  conjugal  mating  in 
which,  by  the  sweetest  and  holiest  relation,  begins  the  potency  of  the 
love  of  kind  (Gen.  ii,  18-25).  It  is  an  outfit  of  liberty  and  union.  So 
the  germ  and  power  of  the  far  end  was  truly  resident  in  that  individual 
being  in  whom  was  focused  the  human  species,  and  thus  in  the  quaint 
antique  phrase  is  portrayed  a  beginning  full  of  aptness  and  help. 

^  See  note  2  on  previous  page. 

[  402  ] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS  LITERATURE 

HI 

The  Later  Cultus  Literature.  The  elements  of  the  "  two- 
fold strain  merged  in  one  "  which  we  have  noted  in  Ezra's 
In  the  Care  Pentateuchal  work  ^  may,  for  rough  distinction,  be 
of  the  Clergy  called  the  popular  and  the  clerical ;  which  is  to 
say,  the  element  that  reflects  personal  traits  and  feelings, 
and  the  «lement  that  unfolds  in  religious  organization.  Of 
these,  many  things  conspired  after  Ezra's  and  Nehemiah's 
activities  to  emphasize  the  latter.  Centered  at  Jerusalem, 
with  the  restored  Temple  at  once  its  capitol,  its  university, 
and  its  cathedral,  the  Jewish  commonwealth  was  rather  a 
church  than  a  state,  its  cultural  affairs  bein^  merged  for 
the  most  part  in  the  interests  of  the  Levitical  hierarchy. 
The  coming  of  Ezra  and  his  company  of  kindred  scribes 
(for  which  latter  cf.  Neh.  viii,  4,  7)  opened  in  effect  an  era 
of  leadership  for  the  tribe  of  Levi,  —  a  tribe  and  leadership 
essentially  clerical.  For  this  ascendancy  they  could  claim 
a  long  tradition,  confirmed  by  the  literature  they  brought. 
The  two  brothers,  it  will  be  remembered,  Moses  the  great 
prophet  and  lawgiver  and  Aaron  his  priestly  colleague  and 
helper,  were  of  this  tribe.  The  whole  Pentateuch  after  Gen- 
esis is  a  history  of  their  activities.  Ezra  the  scribe  traced 
his  lineage  to  Aaron  (Ezra  vii,  1-5)  ;  and  when  he  set  out 
for  Jerusalem  he  was  careful  to  have  a  strong  representa- 
tion not  only  of  priests  but  of  cultured  laymen,  "  who  were 
teachers,"  from  that  tribe  (Ezra  viii,  15,  16),  Arrived  at 
Jerusalem,  where  matters  had  been  going  at  loose  ends, 
these  Levites,  as  a  kind  of  major  and  minor  clergy,  soon 
had  the  cultural  affairs  of  the  nation  all  their  own  way.  The 
Temple  worship  and  administration  were  thoroughly  organ- 
ized, with  elaborate  forms  and  ceremonies,  ordered  courses 
of  priestly  service,  and  a  prescribed  scale  of  Levitical  duties 
from  chief  priest  to  doorkeeper.    So  far  as  one  can  see,  the 

1  See  above,  p.  393. 
[403] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Jewish  people,  the  machinery  of  church  and  state  in  full  run- 
ning order,  were  content  to  leave  religious  thought  in  the 
care  and  control  of  the  Levitical  priesthood  with  its  auxiliary 
orders  of  rabbis  and  scribes. 

Such  clerical  ascendancy  —  monopoly  we  may  not  forbear 
to  call  it  —  was  bound  to  have  its  distinctive  impress  on  the 
general  literary  situation.  It  set  the  intellectual  pace.  It  was 
the  main  factor  in  creating  what  I  have  called  tRe  atmos- 
phere of  legalism. 1  As  such,  it  had  the  advantages  and  the 
limitations  of  clericalism.  We  must  not,  of  course,  deny  or 
belittle  the  former,  which  for  the  Jewish  mind  and  tempera- 
ment were  the  advantages  of  a  fit  staying  and  saving  power. 
The  Jewish  genius  required  its  definiteness,  its  concrete  cultus 
and  symbolism.  But,  just  as  with  clericalism  in  modern 
times,  we  must  needs  reckon  with  its  limitations.  The  cleri- 
cal mind,  subdued  to  its  ecclesiastical  formulas,  was  not 
creative,  not  flexible  and  tolerant,  not  open  to  large  and 
liberal  vision.  It  tended  rather  to  the  stereotyped  and  estab- 
lished, to  rabbinical  comment  rather  than  to  literary  creation. 
On  the  whole,  then,  we  cannot  regard  the  era  that  set  in 
with  the  birthday  of  Judaism  as  greatly  conducive  to  literary 
light  and  power.  Those  spiritual  forces  went  into  abeyance 
with  the  lapse  of  the  prophetic  spirit  and,  if  yet  to  appear, 
were  called  forth  by  other  influences. 

Of  this  period  —  which  for  its  dominant  legalism  we  have 
called  the  Puritan  Era  —  the  most  characteristic  literary  prod- 
uct was  a  book  written  about  a  century  and  a  half 
Chronicles:        .         „  in-  i  ,         i         •      i 

the  Levitical  after   Ezra,    and  reflectmg  the    cultural  attitude 

and  Judaic  ^f  about  three  hundred  years  before  Christ,  or  a 
Bluebook  •' 

little  later.  That  book  was  the  Chronicles,  — origi- 
nally written  as  a  single  work,  and  as  is  thought  including 
also,  by  the  same  author,  the  memoirs  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah 
as  we  have  them  in  the  books  so  named.  The  Hebrew  title 
of  the  work,  "  Events  of  the  Times  "  iyDibre  hayyaviini),  as 
^  See  above,  p.  387. 
[404] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS   LITERATURE 

also  the  Greek  designation,  "  Supplements"  {Paraleipomena), 
represents  not  unfitly  its  rank  and  significance  in  the  Bibli- 
cal library.  It  aims  to  give  a  revised  epitome  of  the  nation's 
history  as  this  presented  itself  to  the  modernized  mind  of 
a  later  and  more  developed  cultus.  It  is  evidently  a  product 
of  the  Temple  scholarship  and  the  Temple  archives.  From 
its  undisguised  interest  in  the  Levite  families  and  courses, 
and  from  its  liking  for  the  choral  service,  it  is  not  unreason- 
ably thought  to  have  been  written  by  a  cleric  of  the  minor 
orders,  a  scribe,  and  perhaps  a  director  of  the  music.  That 
such  a  person  may  have  been  an  official  of  distinction  is 
indicated  by  the  fact  that  a  great  many  of  the  Psalms,  the 
hymnody  of  this  Second  Temple,  are  by  their  titles  con- 
signed to  the  care  of  "the  chief  musician."  For  its  final 
disposal  in  the  Biblical  canon  the  Book  of  Chronicles,  like 
Ruth  and  Daniel,^  underwent  a  shift  of  estimate.  By  the 
Hebrew  compilers  it  was  placed  at  the  very  end,  in  the 
so-called  "writings,"  as  if  it  were  a  kind  of  summary,  or 
perhaps  an  appendix.  In  the  Greek  canon,  however,  which 
the  modern  versions  follow,  it  was  placed  in  the  series  of 
historical  books,  just  after  the  Books  of  Kings,  and  read 
as  a  parallel  history.  Read  in  either  order  and  estimate 
it  is  rewarding,  from  its  reflection  of  the  matured  Puritan 
attitude  to  the  past  of  Jewish  history. 

Considered  as  parallel  and  supplemental  to  the  earlier 
historical  books  (Samuel  and  Kings)  this  record  of  the 
Chronicles  merits  brief  comparison  with  these  ;  we  can  get 
thereby  at  what  is  most  characteristic  in  it. 

First  then,  it  is  natural  to  ask  why,  if  the  Hebrew  story 
was  already  so  well  told,  this  new  version  of  it  was  evidently 
deemed  necessary.  And  the  answer  is  that  the  intervening 
years  had  altered  the  cultural  attitude  to  life,  from  the 
simpler-hearted  Israelitish,  such  as  had  prevailed  before  the 
exile,  to  the  more  sophisticated  Jewish,  such  as  the  Levitical 

1  Cf.  above,  p.  281. 

[405] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

law  and  the  Temple  system  had  developed.  One  feels  the 
difference  in  the  whole  tone  of  the  book.  In  reading  the 
It  D'  tin  -  t'ooks  of  Samuel  and  Kings,  from  whose  sources 
tive  Aim  Chronicles  got  its  main  material,  one  feels  the  very 
an  one  form  and  pressure  of  the  times  therein  portrayed ; 
one  has  the  sense  of  a  sterling  type  of  religion  that  relies 
less  on  form  and  prescript  than  on  native  piety  and  faith  ; 
and  especially  one  responds  to  the  power  and  charm  of 
great  personalities — Samuel,  Saul,  David,  Jonathan,  Elijah, 
EHsha  —  men  of  large  prophetic  mold.  The  history  reveals 
itself  in  the  natural  color,  rugged  and  sincere,  unbiased  by 
later  interpretations.  Herein  the  Chronicler  differs  materially. 
His  personages  do  not  haunt  the  reader's  memory ;  they  are 
portrayed  rather  as  related  to  the  sanctions  or  penalties  of 
a  religious  dispensation.  His  storied  times  move  across  a 
priestly  background.  The  Chronicles  read,  in  fact,  like  a 
history  not  felt  but  made,  —  a  piece  of  scribal  work,  its 
moving  scenes  sharing  indiscriminately  with  bald  genealogies 
and  statistics.  And  this  indeed  is  what  they  are.  They  are 
the  work  of  a  writer  who,  as  it  would  seem,  could  portray 
Israel's  religious  past  only  in  the  tone  and  coloring  of 
organized  and  orthodox  Judaism,  —  of  the  Judaism  that  had 
become  mature  and  stereotyped  since  the  return  from  exile. 
It  is  as  if  the  Levitical  ordinances  had  always  set  the  cul- 
tural pace  for  the  national  mind. 

In  noting  this,  let  us  not  be  unfair  to  the  good  traits  of 
the  book.  It  reflects  the  mind  of  a  nation  imbued  with  a  high 
sense  of  the  awe  and  sanctity  of  its  religious  symbolism.  Its 
law  of  the  sanctuary  has  become  its  law  of  life,  —  the  fit  ex- 
pression of  that  race  "  of  whom  saints,  fanatics,  and  martyrs 
are  made."  As  a  church  history  the  Book  of  Chronicles  is 
a  sincerely  religious  history.  Its  literary  tone,  whenever  the 
author  escapes  from  his  interminable  lists  of  names,  is  emi- 
nently reverent  and  devout,  as  befits  the  idiom  of  the  sanctu- 
ary.   Thus  it  mirrors  the  religious  standard  of  its  age, 

[406] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS  LITERATURE 

A  second  question  here  rising  is,  If  the  Chronicler  sees 
his  nation's  past  through  so  altered  a  medium,  how  does 
Ti  „    ,,.      this  view  affect   his   treatment  of   historic  fact? 

Its  Handling 

of  Historic      In  general  we  may  answer  :    He  does  not  take 
^'^  conscious  liberties  with  fact ;  but  neither  has  he 

the  historian's  minute  care  for  accuracy  and  consistency. 
He  challenges  verification  by  frequent  reference  to  sources 
presumably  available  to  his  readers  ;  sources  apparently  iden- 
tical, for  the  most  part,  with  those  from  which  the  material 
of  the  Books  of  Kings  was  drawn.^  His  method  with  them 
is  selection  of  such  facts  as  make  for  his  purpose  and  let- 
ting the  rest  go,  without  care  for  the  effect  of  the  omission. 
On  the  whole  his  work  does  not  rise  to  the  historical  value 
of  the  Books  of  Kings,  though  for  matters  connected  with 
the  cultus  we  should  allow  for  its  clerical  author's  familiarity 
with  Temple  traditions  and  archives,  on  which  he  draws  for 
the  real  inwardness  of  his  essentially  religious  history. 

We  are  to  remember,  however,  the  comparative  restric- 
tion of  his  range  and  purpose.  His  history  is  not  so  much 
a  rival  of  the  earlier  one  as  a  filled-out  department  of  it. 
Written  long  after  the  northern  kingdom  had  ceased  to 
exist,  its  secular  narrative  is  concerned  only  with  the  south- 
ern, the  kingdom  of  Judah,  or  more  specifically  with  the 
fortunes  of  the  Davidic,  which  is  to  say  the  Judean,  dynasty, 
from  its  founder  David  to  its  last  member  Zedekiah,  under 
whom  the  people  were  deported  and  made  servants  '"  until 

1  This  is  not  saying  that  he  drew  directly  from  the  Books  of  Kings  as 
we  have  them,  but  only  that  the  two  authors  (or  schools)  drew  as  they 
needed  from  the  same  repository  of  sources.  Two  of  the  Chronicler's 
references  to  authorities,  however,  are  significant.  In  2  Chron.  xiii,  22,  he 
refers  to  "the  commentary  [A.  V.  "story,"  Heb.  midrask\  of  the  prophet 
Iddo  " ;  and  in  xxiv,  27,  similarly  to  "  the  commentary  of  the  book  of  the 
Kings."  This  indicates,  what  we  know  otherwise,  that  in  his  time  there 
was  current  a  class  of  literature  called  in  Hebrew  midrash,  whose  aim 
was  exposition  of  the  historical  and  prophetic  writings  in  possession. 
The  whole  Book  of  Chronicles,  apart  from  its  abundant  statistics,  is 
largely  midrashic,  —  an  explanation  of  history  rather  than  the  history  itself. 

[407] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

the  land  had  enjoyed  its  sabbaths.  For  as  long  as  it  lay 
desolate  it  kept  sabbath,  to  fulfil  threescore  and  ten  years  " 
(2  Chron.  xxxvi,  21).  This  quoted  passage  shows  the  essen- 
tially Levitical  interpretation  that  underlies  the  whole  account ; 
it  is  history  in  the  light  of  Mosaic  law.  The  secular  side, 
however,  is  not  the  writer's  main  line.  He  wrote  at  a  time 
when,  as  has  been  described,  "Jerusalem  had  ceased  to  be 
the  head  of  an  independent  state  and  had  become  merely 
"a  municipality  governed  by  a  church.'"^  It  is  in  the 
church,  or  in  other  words  the  Temple,  —  its  history,  its 
liturgy,  its  ritual,  —  that  his  interest  centers.  All  the  facts 
that  make  for  this  are  vital  to  his  theme.  The  genealogies, 
for  instance,  and  the  lists  of  names  with  which  the  narra- 
tive abounds,  are  by  no  means  superfluous  ;  when  we  note 
the  lion's  share  devoted  to  the  tribe  of  Levi,  in  all  its 
families  great  and  small  (i  Chron.  vi),  and  in  the  disposition 
of  these  in  the  various  grades  and  courses  of  the  priestly 
and  Temple  service  (ix,  10-34  ;  xv,  i-xvi,  6  ;  xxiii-xxvi), 
we  become  aware  of  his  underlying  design,  to  trace,  by  a 
kind  of  clerical  succession,  the  priestly  line  from  the  taber- 
nacle days  of  Moses  and  Aaron,  and  the  Temple  hierarchy 
from  the  preliminary  organization  under  David.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  in  the  Books  of  Kings  the  ordinances  of 
the  first  Temple  receive  very  scant  attention  ;  one  cannot  well 
make  out  how  definite  was  the  relation  of  the  priests  and  how 
loyal  the  allegiance  of  the  people  to  their  heritage  of  tradi- 
tional law.  It  is  this  that  the  Chronicler  aims  to  supply  ;  and 
in  doing  so  he  treats  the  whole  Temple  function  as  virtually 
organized  and  active  from  the  time  when  David  set  up  the 
tent  over  the  recovered  ark  of  God  (cf.  i  Chron.  xv,  xvi). 
The  successive  histories  of  the  kings  from  David  onward 
are  told  with  special  emphasis  on  their  relations  to  the 
sanctuary  and  to  ritual  religion.  David's  significance  as  a 
settled  monarch  was  not  in  his  personal  or  political  character 

1  Chronicles,  in  The  New  Century  Kible,  p.  23. 
[408] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS   LITERATURE 

but  in  his  choosing  a  site  and  making  elaborate  preparations 
for  the  Temple  that  his  son  was  to  build  (i  Chron.  xxi, 
i8-xxix,  2  2);  Solomon  was  less  notable  as  the  wise  and 
puissant  king  than  as  the  builder  and  consecrator  of  the 
Temple  (2  Chron.  iii-viii)  ;  Jehoshaphat  began  his  military 
campaign  with  a  Temple  service  of  fasting  and  prayer 
(2  Chron.  xx,  1-13);  Uzziah  was  smitten  with  leprosy  for 
usurping  the  priest's  function  (xxvi,  16-21);  Hezekiah's 
great  reform,  undertaken  in  the  first  year  of  his  reign, 
consisted  in  opening  the  Temple  which  his  father  Ahaz 
had  closed  (cf.  xxviii,  24)  and  reorganizing  its  festival  and 
sacrificial  servi'ce  (xxix-xxxi) ;  to  Josiah's  reform,  as  told  in 
2  Kings,  is  added  a  detailed  account  of  his  Temple  festival 
service  (xxxv,  1-19).  All  these  supplemental  accounts,  the 
data  of  which,  if  authentic,  could  be  drawn  from  Temple 
archives  and  statistics,  show  wherein  the  Chronicler's  histori- 
cal interest  lay,  and  incidentally  its  value  in  the  handling 
of  historical  fact. 

On  the  whole,  while  this  Book  of  Chronicles,  written  at 
its  late  day,  reflects  the  added  awe  and  sanctity,  and  per- 
haps the  deepened  sensitiveness  to  sin,  belonging  to  the 
atmosphere  of  an  established  ritual  and  liturgical  cultus,  it 
is  quite  lacking  in  the  finer  and  freer  personal  elements 
that  give  zest  and  buoyancy  to  life.  That  is  why  I  have 
contrasted  to  it  the  personal  charm  that  pervades  the  earlier 
history.  Its  historical  judgments  are,  as  it  were,  official,  the 
professional  verdicts  of  an  orthodox  clergy.  It  represents 
accordingly  the  mind  of  a  people,  or  rather  of  a  class, 
molded  to  the  pattern  of  a  dogmatic  religion,  with  its  lack 
of  breadth  and  prophetic  freedom.  Its  religion  is,  to  a 
degree,  stereotyped  and  static.  We  mav  regard  it  as  per- 
haps the  fullest  reflection  that  the  Scripture  affords  of  what 
we  have  termed  legalism  and  its  austerities.  Let  us  not 
forget,  however,  that  such  seasoned  legalism,  with  its  stur- 
diness,  its  rich  symbolism,  its  consciousness  of  the  will  of 

[409] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

God,  was  not  all  austerity.  Nor  was  its  product  the  only 
literature  available  in  its  time.  Outside  the  scholarly  and 
clerical  circles  the  Jewish  people  had  a  goodly  store  of  works 
of  quite  different  tenor,  in  which  their  thought  could  move 
with  more  genial  freedom. 

Before  we  go  on  to  mention  these,  however,  we  must 
needs  give  some  further  consideration  to  the  two  books 
Ezra  •  Book  w^^^^'  ^^  already  noted, ^  are  thought  to  have 
of  the  Puri-  been  originally  included  in  the  Chronicles,  namely, 
tan  Zealot  g^ra  and  Nehemiah.  Much  of  the  substance  of 
Ezra  has  been  referred  to  and  used  in  our  study  of  Ezra 
as  scribe  and  scholar.^  We  need  here  only  to  add  some- 
thing about  the  book  that  bears  his  name,  and  how  it  fits 
into  the  Biblical  plan. 

The  Book  of  Ezra  is  essentially  the  continuation  of  the 
Book  of  Chronicles.  There  is  no  gap  between  the  two. 
Beginning  with  the  decree  of  Cyrus's  first  year,  permitting 
the  Jewish  exiles  to  return  to  their  home,  the  author  repeats 
in  full  what  the  Chronicles,  quoting  at  end,  left  in  the  middle 
of  a  sentence  (Ezra  i,  1-4  ;  cf.  2  Chron.  xxxvi,  22,  23). 
From  this  he  goes  on,  in  characteristic  chronicler  style, 
accompanying  his  narrative  with  names,  numbers,  documents, 
and  statistics,  to  tell  {chaps,  i-vi)  the  story  of  the  return, 
the  setting  up  of  the  great  altar,  and  the  building  of  the 
Temple  with  its  survival  of  difficulties,  until  in  the  year 
516  B.C.  "  the  children  of  Israel,  the  priests  and  the  Levites, 
and  the  rest  of  the  children  of  the  captivity,  kept  the  dedi- 
cation of  this  house  of  God  with  joy  "  (Ez.  vi,  16).  Up  to 
this  point  the  history  is  the  priestly  account,  accurate  no 
doubt  as  to  externals,  but  conceived  in  the  spirit  of  more 
than  two  centuries  later,  when  the  Jewish  commonwealth  had 
become  a  Jewish  hierarchy.  Its  contrast  in  tone  and  atmos- 
phere with  the  writings  of  Haggai  and  Zechariah,  which  deal 

1  See  above,  p.  404.         ^  See  section  of  that  topic,  pp.  379-384  above. 

[410] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS  LITERATURE 

with  the  same  period,  is  impressive.  The  prophets  whose 
enthusiasm  had  brought  about  the  rebuilding  (cf.  Ezra  v,  i  ; 
vi,  14)  had  predicted  a  house  filled  with  Jehovah's  glory 
(cf.  Hag.  ii,  7-9)  and  a  land  friendly  and  attractive  to  all 
outside  nations  (cf.  Zech.  ii,  1 1  ;  viii,  20-23),  In  the  Book 
of  Ezra  there  is  no  suggestion  of  this  state  of  things.  The 
compiler,  describing  only  the  ceremonial  aspects  of  the  event, 
provides  it  with  a  fully  organized  priesthood  and  clergy,  as 
if  this  had  survived  the  captivity  intact.  "  And  they  set 
the  priests  in  their  divisions,"  he  writes,  ""and  the  Levites 
in  their  courses,  for  the  service  of  God,  which  is  at  Jeru- 
salem ;  as  it  is  written  in  the  book  of  Moses  "  (Ezra  vi,  r8). 
Thus  he  assumes  a  cultus  in  complete  running  order  as 
soon  as  the  Temple  service,  after  seventy  years'  abe}'ance, 
is  resumed.  All  this,  as  we  see,  is  quite  in  keeping  with  the 
Chronicle  history.  It  reflects  a  culture  wherein  the  church 
sense  has  eclipsed  the  secular,  or,  in  other  words,  has  devel- 
oped a  full-orbed  legalism.  And  this  result  must  have  been 
the  growth  of  many  years  of  religious  and  educative  discipline. 
It  is  not  until  fifty-eight  years  later,  however,  that  Ezra, 
with  his  numerous  company  of  men  '"  who  were  teachers  " 
(viii,  16),  appears  on  the  scene,  and  not  until  seventy-two 
years  that  he  actually  is  called  upon  to  read  this  "book  of 
Moses  "  to  the  people  (see  Neh.  viii).  With  the  seventh 
chapter  the  distinctive  Ezra  narrative  begins,  telling  of  the 
letter  of  permission  he  secured  from  King  Artaxerxes,  and 
of  his  sense  of  the  grace  and  honor  thus  done  him.  At 
this  point  the  history  incorporates  the  autobiographic  notes 
of  Ezra  himself ;  w^hich  notes,  extending  from  vii,  27,  to 
ix,  I  5.,  give  no  longer  a  later  commentary  {midrash)  but  the 
contemporary  impression,  the  actual  state  of  things.  Of  the 
laxity  and  insincerity  into  which  the  priestly  service  had  by 
this  time  fallen  a  contemporary  prophet,  Malachi,  as  we 
have   seen,   bears   indignant   witness.^     Of   the   scandal   of 

1  See  above,  pp.  364-366. 
[411] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

mixed  marriages  which  must  needs  be  dealt  with  before  he 
could  find  free  inlet  for  his  book  of  law,  Ezra's  own  words 
give  account.  His  well-nigh  fanatical  behavior  on  making 
the  discovery,  and  his  too  rash  and  drastic  measures  to  right 
the  wrong,  have  already  been  considered.^  Such  frenzied 
conduct  reveals  not  the  prophetic  largeness  and  liberalism 
but  the  puritan  narrowness,  intent  on  strict  obedience  to 
priestly  and  Levitical  tradition  ;  it  awakens  to  a  degree  that 
race  pride  and  exclusiveness  which  to  the  prophets  seemed 
a  danger  to  be  watched  and  guarded .^  One  does  not  feel 
drawn  to  such  a  character ;  there  is  lack  of  sympathy  and 
tolerance ;  it  is  the  character  of  the  puritan  zealot.  We 
ought  not  to  dismiss  it,  however,  without  a  glance  at  the 
other  side.  His  autobiographic  record  reveals  it  as  it  were 
between  the  lines.  It  is  with  an  outburst  of  tender  piety,  in 
his  gratitude  for  the  King's  gracious  decree  (vii,  1 1-26), 
that  the  autobiography  opens:  "  131essed  be  Jehovah,  the 
God  of  our  fathers,  who  hath  put  such  a  thing  as  this  in 
the  king's  heart,  to  beautify  the  house  of  Jehovah  which  is 
in  Jerusalem  ;  and  hath  extended  lovingkindness  unto  me 
before  the  king,  and  his  counsellors,  and  before  all  the 
king's  mighty  princes "  (vii,  27,  28).  It  is  with  a  noble 
courage  and  faith  that  with  his  treasure-bearing  company 
he  sets  out  unarmed  and  unprotected  for  Jerusalem  ;  "  for," 
he  says,  "  I  was  ashamed  to  ask  of  the  king  a  band  of 
soldiers  and  horsemen  to  help  us  against  the  enemy  in  the 
way,  because  we  had  spoken  unto  the  king,  saying,  "  The 
hand  of  our  God  is  upon  all  them  that  seek  him,  for  good 
(viii,  22).  It  is  a  sincere  self-identification  with  his  people 
that  prompts  the  notable  prayer  of  contrite  confession  when 
he  has  been  shocked  by  the  corrupt  state  of  things  (ix,  5-15). 
If  a  man  like  this  must  be  stern  and  exacting,  it  is  not  from 
hardness  or  blindness  ;  it  is  because  he  is  deeply  sensible 
of  the  far-reaching  issues  at  stake. 

1  See  above,  p.  380.  ^  See  above,  p.  328. 

[412] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS  LITERATURE 

The   story  of    Ezra    is    not   all    told,    not   even    its   most 

important  part  is  told,  in  the  Book  of  Ezra.    As  has  already 

been  noted,  he  could  not  accomplish  the  errand 

Book  of  the     that   had   brought   him    from    Babylon    until    his 

Patriotic  Ad-  publication   of   the    Mosaic   law   could   be   made 

ministrator  .  ,  i  i  i       •  .       ^ 

With  approval  and  authority,  —  an  opportunity  for 

which  he  had  to  wait  twelve  years. ^  The  sequel,  supplying 
the  intervening  events,  is  told  in  a  succeeding  work,  the 
Book  of  Nehemiah,  which  originally  was  doubtless  a  con- 
tinuation of  Ezra  and  the  concluding  section  of  the  Chron- 
icler's religious  history.  Of  this  Chronicle  account,  tracing 
the  Temple  service  and  ritual  from  earliest  times,  the  reading 
of  the  Levitical  law  (Neh.  viii,  1-12),  followed  by  a  week 
of  festival  (viii,  13-18),  a  day  of  fasting  and  confession 
(ix),  and  confirmed  by  a  solemn  covenant  (x),  would  be  the 
natural  culmination.  It  marked  the  point  where  the  civic 
and  the  religious  administrations,  united  under  one  revered 
constitution,  could  work  harmoniously  together,  each  supply- 
ing what  the  other  lacked.  It  is  from  the  settled  sense  of 
this  situation,  long  the  established  order  of  things,  that  the 
Chronicler  compiles  his  epitome  a  century  and  a  half  later, 
when  Judaism  has  matured  the  promise  of  its  birthday .^ 

The  Book  of  Nehemiah  is  more  than  a  mere  factual  and 
annalistic  continuation  of  Chronicles.  It  acquires  a  unique 
An  Engagine  literary  interest  from  the  generous  amount  of 
Autobiog-  autobiographical  material  that  it  incorporates.  All 
'^^  ^  the  intimate  experiences  and  events  in  which  he 

was  the  protagonist  —  the  royal  authority  brought  from  Susa 
where  he  was  cupbearer  to  the  Persian  king,  the  speedy 
rebuilding  of  the  walls,  the  wise  handling  of  craft  without 
and  graft  within  the  city,  the  suppression  of  Sabbath  abuse 
and  trade,  the  flaming  wrath  against  alien  marriages  in  priestly 
circles  —  are  told  in  artless,  modest,  yet  self-respecting  style 
in  Nehemiah 's  own  words.  There  is  nothing  else  like  it  in 
^  See  above,  p.  380.  2  (^f.  above,  pp.  381-383. 

[413] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

the  Old  Testament;  Ezra's  personal  notes  (Ez.  vii,  27-ix,  1 5), 
which  come  nearest,  being  rather  of  the  mission  than  of 
the  man.  The  way  in  which  the  Chronicler  in  places  has 
overlaid  the  account  with  his  own  matter  sometimes  con- 
fuses the  sequence  of  events  ;  but  one  quite  ignores  this  on 
entering  into  the  limpid  charm  of  Nehemiah's  self-revealing 
journal  intime.  If  for  no  other  reason,  the  comprehensive 
Chronicle  history  as  a  cultus  product  may  be  accounted  well 
worth  while  for  allowing  two  of  the  most  patriotic  and  self- 
effacing  men  in  all  the  Hebrew  annals,  Ezra  and  Nehemiah, 
thus  to  speak  out  for  themselves  what  is  in  their  heart.  It 
makes  the  real  inwardness  of  the  noblest  Judaism  no  more 
remote  but  near  and  intimate,  as  clerical  and  academic  annals 
cannot  do. 

Note.  Nehemiah's  autobiographical  notes,  as  indicated  by  the  first 
person,  extend  from  i,  i,  to  vii,  5,  at  which  point  a  genealogy  intervenes 
w^hich  is  virtually  a  repetition  of  Ezra  ii ;  and  the  first  person  is  not 
resumed  until  chapter  xiii,  where  on  his  second  visit  to  Jerusalem  (cf. 
xiii,  6)  he  vindicates  the  law.  The  passage  viii,  9-1  2,  ought  to  be  added 
to  the  account  of  Nehemiah,  though  not  in  his  words.  It  is  remarkable 
that,  though  their  respective  services  to  their  country's  welfare  were  coop- 
erative and  complementary,  there  is  nothing  to  indicate  that  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah  were  personally  acquainted  with  each  other. 

III.    Reactions  and  Alleviations 

These  clerical  and  academic  annals,  as  represented  in  the 
books  of  Chronicles,  Ezra,  and  Nehemiah,  show  us  that  by 
the  time  the  Chronicler  wrote,  in  the  third  century  B.C., 
the  night  of  legalism,  with  its  chill  austerities,  its  restrictive 
atmosphere,  had  indeed  settled  down  over  the  tractable  mind 
of  Judaism.  The  Temple  system  held  the  undisputed  mo- 
nopoly of  public  allegiance  and  sentiment.  This  regime, 
though  not  genial,  was  of  course  not  all  bad  ;  and  at  any 
rate  it  made  the  Mosaic  religion  a  thing  stanchly  articulate 
and  distinctive.     Like  later  Puritan  eras  of  which  we  have 

[414] 


•     THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS   LITERATURE 

knowledge,  it  fostered  sturdy  and  strenuous  character.  Still, 
it  was  a  night,  a  kind  of  pause  and  suspense  while  the  soul 
of  prophecy  slumbered.^  What  we  have  to  note  here,  how- 
ever, is  that  it  was  not  without  its  kindly  stars,  by  which 
men  of  more  outreaching  spirit  could  steer  their  way  ;  and 
not  without  its  songs  in  the  night,  or  in  other  words  its 
literary  utterances  of  more  tolerant  and  liberal  tenor.  To 
some  consideration  of  these  we  now  gladly  turn  ;  it  opens 
to  a  freer  atmosphere. 

If  the  nation  had  lapsed  into  a  too  bigoted  attitude,  it 
was  not  for  lack  of  wise  warning.  As  long  ago  as  the  time 
„  J    of  the  Second  Isaiah,  who  exhorted  Israel  at  large 

Forewarned  '  o 

but  not  to  ""  gather  out  the  stones  "  (Isa.  Ixii,  lo),  to  "take 

Forearmed  ^p  ^j^^  stumbling-block  out  of  the  way  of  my 
people  "  (Ivii,  14),  their  untoward  tendencies  were  laid  bare 
lest  these  work  to  the  ruin  of  their  prophetic  mission  in 
the  world.  If  they  allowed  their  spirit  of  clannishness,  race 
pride,  self-righteousness,  and  exclusiveness  to  get  the  upper 
hand,  how  could  they,  from  a  people  despised  and  forsaken, 
become  a  people  sought  out  and  honored  and  loved  }  In 
his  idea  they  were  to  be  not  only  righteous  and  conscientious 
but  so  gracious  and  tolerant  that  their  life  and  law  should 
be  an  attraction  to  the  nations  that  needed  salvation.^  It  is 
plain  to  be  felt  that  by  the  time  we  are  now  considering 
the  nation  had  receded  far  from  this  prophetic  ideal.  They 
had  given  their  untoward  tendencies  the  rein.  And  it  is  not 
hard  to  trace  how  this  came  about.  Not  ignoring  the  first 
impulse  of  the  returned  exiles,  the  refusal  in  building  the 
Temple  to  fraternize  with  the  people  of  the  land  (Ezra  iv,  1-5), 
one  has  but  to  recall  how  Ezra's  notions  of  ritual  purity  and 
blue  blood  precipitated  the  matter  of  dissolving  the  alien 
marriages,  and  Nehemiah's  further  pressure  with  the  conse- 
quent Samaritan  schism  and  rivalry,^  until  Jewish  race  pride 

1  Cf.  above,  pp.  352  ff.  2  ggg  above,  pp.  328  and  334. 

^  See  above,  p.  386. 

[415] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE       • 

and  orthodoxy  and  exclusiveness  became  a  fierce  religious 
tenet.  For  this  not  the  Pentateuchal  law  was  responsible  but 
the  narrow  and  unsympathetic  application  of  it,  —  an  applica- 
tion far  from  ready  to  carry  it  onward  to  its  supreme  end  in 
love.  Moses'  resolution  of  it  in  love  to  God  (Deut.  vi,  4,  5) 
easily  became  the  hearty  "  Hear,  O  Israel  "  ;  but  the  cul- 
minating commandment  of  love  to  neighbor  (Lev.  xix,  18) 
remained  incidental,  not  forearmed  against  that  narrowing 
discrimination  which,  until  Jesus  came  to  enlarge  its  scope, 
would  shut  its  neighbor  circle  up  to  the  Jewish  race,^  Hence 
the  nation's  spiritual  self-limitation,  and  its  consequent  alone- 
ness  in  the  fellowship  of  nations. 


Veiled  Signs  of  Reaction  and  Protest.  It  must  not  be 
supposed  that  the  drastic  measures  instituted  by  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah  would  leave  the  public  sentiment  in  stable  and 
tranquil  equilibrium.  The  people  rejoiced  indeed  in  the 
completed  Mosaic  law  as  a  whole  ;  it  was  their  welcomed 
Palladium  of  conduct ;  but  in  some  places  it  hurt.  That 
wholesale  putting  away  of  foreign  wives  especially,  invading 
thus  the  sacred  relations  of  the  family,  was  really,  as  we 
see  from  Malachi,  the  heroic  remedy  for  a  prior  worse  evil, 
namely,  the  putting  away  of  native  wives.^  As  a  safeguard 
of  racial  and  religious  integrity  it  had  its  justification  ;  but 
it  was  a  deadly  blow  to  that  primal  institution  of  conjugal 
mating  which  is  the  wellspring  of  neighbor  love.'^  So  the 
divorce  itself,  whatever  its  need  and  motive,  awakened  the 
healthy  instinct  of  the  subsiding  prophecy  to  urge  the  care 
of  the  spirit  of  fidelity  within  ;  and  we  hear  Malachi  saying, 
"  Therefore  take  heed  to  your  spirit,  and  let  none  deal 
treacherously  against  the  wife  of  his  youth.  For  I  hate 
putting  away,  saith   Jehovah  the  God  of   Israel,  and   him 

1  Cf.  above,  p.  402.  ^  gee  above,  p.  365.  ^  Cf.  Note,  p.  402. 

[416I 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS   LITERATURE 

that  covereth  his  garment  with  violence,  saith  Jehovah  of 
hosts ;  therefore  take  heed  to  your  spirit,  that  ye  deal  not 
treacherously"  (Mai.  ii,  15,  16).  This,  though  practically  con- 
temporary, was  probably  written  before  Ezra's  remedial  code' 
was  enforced  ;  but  the  chance  of  treachery  and  hardness  of 
heart  remained,  and  by  many  would  be  deeply  felt.  To  the 
sensitive  and  reflective  mind  it  would  be  like  an  uncharted 
*rock  in  the  spiritual  voyage  of  human  nature,  against  which 
the  best  that  is  in  man  was  in  danger  of  collision  and  wreck. 
It  is  to  that  inner  boding,  rising  from  a  depth  beneath 
race  pride  or  religious  rigor,  that  our  thoughts  now  turn. 
It  could  not  help  existing ;  and  in  the  literature  of  this 
Puritan  era  there  were  not  lacking  signs  of  reaction  and 
protest,  though  in  the  prevailing  state  of  sentiment  these 
must  be  veiled.  Two  products  of  this  feeling  come  up  for 
consideration,  both  in  cleverly  chosen  literary  type  :  an  idyl 
and  an  allegory. 

"Daintiest  of  love  idyls,"  is  Goethe's  descriptive  phrase 

•for  the  Book  of  Ruth,  —  a  phrase  to  whose  aptness  every 

„   ^  appreciative  reader  will  set  his  seal.    There  is  no 

Ruth :  Idyl        ^^  .... 

of  an  Old-  occasion  here  to  remark  upon  its  meaning  ;  the 
V"f  ^°'"^®"  frank  reading  of  it,  as  one  would  read  a  story 
of  to-day,  is  its  all-sufhcing  exposition.  It  fits 
without  trimming  into  every  age,  and  here  perhaps  we  might 
leave  it.  It  is  worth  while,  however,  to  note  how  graciously, 
yet  how  reactively,  it  fits  into  its  own. 

It  may  be  asked  what  warrant  there  is  for  putting  the 
Book  of  Ruth  among  the  works  of  this  late  Puritan  era 
rather  than  where  our  English  Bible  puts  it,  between  Judges 
and  Samuel.  The  answer  takes  us  first  to  its  place  in  the 
Hebrew  canon.  The  fact  that  it  is  in  the  third  division, 
the  so-called  Writings,  —  being  one  of  the  five  Megilloth,^ 
or  little  classics,  —  is  a  silent  indication  both  of  its  lateness 

^  For  the  Five  Megilloth,  see  below,  pp.  482-510. 

[417] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

and  of  its  popularity.  Of  course  this  does  not  necessarily 
mean  that  it  is  an  invented  story ;  it  may  well  have  come 
down  through  the  traditions  of  the  Davidic  line ;  its  chief 
point,  in  fact,  depends  on  its  claim  as  actual  history.  But 
we  have  further  to  note,  with  charmed  realization  of  its 
skill,  that  the  history,  if  such,  was  rescued  from  oblivion 
and  told  just  when  it  would  do  the  most  good.  Going  back 
to  the  rude  old  times  "when  the  judges  judged"  (Ruth  i,  i),* 
times  of  which  otherwise  we  learn  little  that  is  pleasant  and 
peaceful,  it  shows  by  a  concrete  case  that  there  might  be 
ideal  relations  of  love  and  fidelity  in  families  of  mixed  origin  ; 
that  ancient  marriage  customs  were  tolerant  of  foreign  women ; 
that  even  from  the  Moabite  people,  with  whom  Moses  for- 
bade and  Nehemiah  destroyed  fellowship  (Deut.  xxiii,  3-6  ; 
Neh.  xiii,  1-3,  23-25),  came  one  of  the  sweetest  and  noblest 
of  conjugal  unions  ;  and  finally,  that  King  David,  the  ideal- 
ized hero  of  Judah,  the  man  after  God's  own  heart,  was 
the  great-grandson  of  a  Moabitess.  There  is  a  deal  of  adroit 
suggestion  in  the  innocent  genealogy  appended  to  the  story 
of  Ruth  (Ruth  iv,  18-22).  It  does  not  spare  even  the  race- 
proud  stock  of  Judah  itself ;  yet  it  holds  no  overt  reproach 
or  offense.  The  Book  of  Ruth  simply  embodies  the  reac- 
tion that  lies  implicit  in  the  normal  domestic  relation,  with 
love  the  arbiter,  against  the  strained  conditions  that  must 
have  embittered  much  of  the  later  Jewish  society. 

From  the  idyl,  so  aptly  timed  and  devised,  we  pass  to 
the  allegory,  if  such  it  may  be  called,  the  Book  of  Jonah, 
Jonah:  ^  work  of  more  rugged  and  massive  conception, 

Allegory  of  equally  fitted  to  age  and  public,  but  veiled  in  story 
and  Cross-  and  symbol.  By  reason  of  its  bizarre  imagery 
Purpose  aj-,cj  its  anomalous  situations  this  book  has  not 
received  its  due  from  modern  readers.  "  This  is  the  tragedy 
of  the  Book  of  Jonah,"  someone  has  remarked,  "that  a 
book  which  is  made  the  means  of  one  of  the  most  sublime 

[418] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS  LITERATURE 

revelations  of  truth  in  the  Old  Testament  should  be  known 
to  most  only  for  its  connection  with  a  whale."  ^  While, 
however,  the  whale  incident  cannot  be  ignored  (it  furnishes 
in  fact  an  important  key),  our  concern  is  rather  with  the 
book's  place  in  Hebrew  thinking  and  its  consequent  contri- 
bution to  the  growing  fund  of  Biblical  literature. 

Though  numbered  with  the  works  of  the  Twelve  Prophets, 
this  Book  of  Jonah,  unlike  them,  was  not  written  by  the 
_  .  .  person  whose  name  it  bears  but  about  him  ;  not 
Traits  of  in  the  intense  vein  of  prophetic  warning  or  rhap- 
the  Book  ^^^^  ^^^^  ^^  ^y^^  inviting  vein  of  narrative ;  and 
not  strictly  prophecy  at  all  but  what  one  may  call  criticism 
of  prophecy.  How  it  came  to  be  ranked  and  valued  as  a 
prophetic  utterance  is  explainable  perhaps  by  its  connection 
with  a  historic  prophet.  There  was  a  prophet  Jonah  the 
son  of  Amittai,  who  in  the  days  of  Jeroboam  the  Second 
foretold  the  restoration  of  the  ancient  borders  of  Israel,  to 
the  relief  of  the  Northern  Kingdom  from  a  threatened  fail- 
ure (2  Kings  xiv,  25-27).  The  name,  however,  seems  to  be 
all  that  associates  that  prophet  with  this  Book  of  Jonah.  His 
time  was  about  that  of  Amos ;  that  perhaps  was  why  the  book 
is  placed,  with  only  the  undated  Obadiah  chapter  between, 
just  after  Amos  in  the  canon ;  but  the  sentiment  and  situation 
recognized  therein  is  much  later.  By  all  inner  indications 
the  Book  of  Jonah  was  composed  in  the  midst  of  the  Puritan 
era  and  when  the  spirit  of  prophecy  had  so  subsided  that  it 
was  rather  a  reminiscence  than  a  present  influence. 

The  author's  use  of  the  early  prophet's  name  suggests  the 
type  of  literature  to  which  the  book  belongs,  a  type  coming 
into  favor  in  this  Puritan  era,  namely,  what  was  called  mid- 
ras/i,  or  edifying  enlargement  and  comment.^  As  the  grow- 
ing custom  was,  the  author  has  chosen  to  take  a  name  from 
the  nation's  historic  traditions  and  weave  a  lesson  round  it. 

1  Quoted  in  G.  A.  Smith,"  Book  of  the  Twelve  Prophets,"  Vol.  II,  p.  492. 

2  See  above,  p.  407,  footnote. 

[419] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Note.  If  the  Book  of  Jonah  is  meant  to  reflect  actual  conditions, 
the  author's  choice  of  prophet  and  historic  background  for  his  inidrash 
is  not  without  profound  significance.  Going  back  to  the  time  when  the 
historic  Jonah  of  Gath-hepher  had  by  his  word  averted  a  threatened 
calamity  and  under  Jeroboam  II  witnessed  the  northern  kingdom's 
greatest  reach  of  external  dominion  (2  Kings  xiv,  25-27),  he  strikes 
thus  into  the  era  when  Amos  and  Hosea  labored  in  judgment  and  love 
with  Israel  (see  above,  pp.  148-159),  and  makes  coincident  with  this 
Jonah's  call  to  proclaim  judgment  and  mercy  to  the  great  world  outside 
of  Israel.  It  is  the  first  revelation  of  Jehovah's  gracious  purpose  to 
humanity  at  large,  and  it  begins  with  the  mightiest  and  wickedest  city 
of  all  id.  Jonah  i,  2).  The  sequel,  as  the  author  portrays  it,  discloses 
both  the  world's  readiness  and  prophecy's  unreadiness  to  grasp  the  great 
occasion.  The  author  means  thus  to  show,  perhaps,  that  from  the  be- 
ginning this  unreadiness  on  the  part  of  prophecy  has  been  inveterate 
(cf.  Isa.  1,  2;  Jxiii,  5),  quite  in  contrast  to  the  culmination  of  Jehovah's 
design  as  shown  in  the  Second  Isaiah  (cf.  Isa.  xlv,  22-24:  xlix,  6). 

By  a  rather  loose  term  I  have  called  his  book  an  allegory, 
but  it  is  more  like  a  parable.  The  only  thing  suggesting 
allegory  in  our  more  restricted  modern  sense  is  the  name 
Jonah  son  of  Amittai,  whose  meaning,  "  Dove  son  of  Truth," 
if  meant  to  figure  in  the  story,  would  only  designate  what 
in  the  gracious  purpose  of  Jehovah  the  prophet  ought  to 
have  been  but  failed  to  be.  Such  a  use  of  the  name,  indeed, 
would  not  be  meaningless  —  a  little  subtler,  however,  and 
more  of  the  character  of  a  literary  conceit,  than  we  are  wont 
to  ascribe  to  Bible  writers. 

We  are  familiar  with  Hamlet's  description  of  the  purpose 

of  the  drama,  "  to  hold,  as  'twere,  the  mirror  up  to  nature  ; 

to  show  .  .  .  the  very  age  and  body  of  the  time 

A  Nation's  jo  j 

Plight  Mir-     his  form  and  pressure."  ^    This  allegory  of  Jonah 
rored  in  a       j^^s,  it  would  Seem,  a  similar  purpose  ;   it  is  at 

Prophet's  '  .  '..*',,;  , 

any  rate  an  impressive  mirror  of  the  age  and 
body"  of  its  time.  It  is  minded  to  give  the  "form  and  pres- 
sure "  in  a  picture  of  divine  mercy  encountering  human  fro- 
wardness  ;  and  this  it  does  by  a  story  that  in  the  recalcitrant 

1  Hamlet,  Act  III,  so.  ii. 
[  420  ] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS   LITERATURE 

mood  of  an  old-time  prophet  portrays  a  static  and  stag- 
nant Judaism  mindless  of  its  true  mission  in  the  world. 
This,  I  think,  is  the  book's  veiled  sign  of  reaction  and 
protest.  It  does  not  denounce  ;  it  is  content  to  let  portrayal 
speak  for  itself.  There  is  in  it  a  rub  of  satire,  not  without 
touches  of  caustic  humor  ;  but  underneath  it  all,  to  my  mind, 
is  the  burden  of  a  tender  heart  made  heavy  over  the  cold 
intolerance  and  exclusiveness  into  which  so  much  of  the 
post-prophetic  Judaism  has  congealed.  A  far  cry  this  from 
the  ideal  of  the  Servant  of  Jehovah,  or  the  impulse  that 
brought  the  exiles  home  from   Babylon. 

We  leave  it  to  the  reader  to  linger  on  the  details  of  the 
story.  The  personal  traits  and  moods  of  the  prophet  —  his 
reluctance  to  obey  his  call,  his  fear  lest  God  should  be  kind 
and  thus  spoil  his  threat  of  doom,  his  childish  anger  when 
his  fear  is  justified  —  explain  themselves  and  do  not  need 
our  elucidation.  The  impressive  background  on  which  the 
story  moves  —  as  it  were  a  world  full  of  divine  good  will 
and  human  responsiveness  waiting  only  prophetic  cooperation 
—  reveals  on  the  part  of  the  writer  a  spiritual  breadth  and 
liberalism  beyond  that  of  any  other  Old  Testament  writer. 
To  find  its  parallel  we  must  review  the  whole  prophetic 
movement.  And  this  is  what  I  think  the  writer  has  done. 
That  his  purview  is  much  greater  than  one  individual's 
experience,  or  even  one  generation's,  is  brought  to  light  by 
the  leading  figure  that  has  caused  so  much  question,  the 
metaphor  of  the  great  fish,  which,  as  I  have  intimated,  is, 
rightly  interpreted  as  such,  in  reality  the  key  to  the  writer's 
range  and  scope.  Considered  as  a  literal  account,  as  a  thing 
that  actually  happened,  it  verges  on  the  absurd,  not  to  say 
the  unthinkable  ;  the  writer  himself,  bold  as  he  is,  would 
pause  at  that.  Considered  as  a  symbolic  experience  of  a 
prophet  who  in  broad  consciousness  is  identified  with  the 
destiny  of  a  whole  nation,  the  figure  is  already  prophetic 
property,  used  by  Jeremiah  and  doubtless  in  this  writer's 

[421] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

mind.  When  the  exiles  were  first  deported  to  Babylon, 
Jeremiah  thus  portrayed  the  event :  "  Nebuchadnezzar  the 
king  of  Babylon  hath  devoured  me,  ...  he  hath,  like  a 
monster,  swallowed  me  up,  he  hath  filled  his  maw  with  my 
delicacies"  (Jer.  li,  34).  Ten  verses  later  he  added:  "And 
I  will  execute  judgment  upon  Bel  in  Babylon,  and  I  will 
bring  forth  out  of  his  mouth  that  which  he  hath  swallowed 
up "  (li,  44).  Here,  as  we  see,  the  writer,  whose  whole 
story  is  a  viidrasli,  has  his  underlying  imagery  made  to  his 
hand,  furnished  by  prophecy  as  the  name  was  furnished 
by  history.  Let  us  see  what  comes  of  it,  as  estimated  on 
this  plane. 

It  is  worth  while  here  to  take  a  moment's  retrospective 

glance  at  the  large  prophetic  field  and  ideal  that  doubtless 

engaged  the  author's  thought.    As  we  have  seen. 

The  Fish  and     ,  ,     ,  r    t  t    i  i 

the  Psalm  the  whole  majestic  movement  01  Hebrew  proph- 
of  Thanks-     g^y,  with  its  presaged  avails  for  Israel  and  the 

giving  JO 

world,  centered  round  an  ordeal  of  captivity,  exile, 
and  eventual  release. ^  The  vision  of  the  two  Isaiahs  covers 
the  whole  inner  movement;^  Jeremiah  predicts  a  new  starting 
point  of  history  from  its  crowning  event  (Jer.  xxiii,  7,  8). 
The  experience  was  meant  for  Israel's  correction  and  redemp- 
tion (cf.  Jer.  xlvi,  28  ;  Isa.  xl,  i  ;  xliii,  i)  ;  meant  still  more 
for  his  appointed  mission  as  servant  and  witness  of  Jehovah 
(cf.  Isa.  xli,  15,  16;  xliii,  10,  12).  And  so  its  outcome,  as 
contemplated  from  a  later  time  by  a  just  insight,  was  not 
bane  at  all  but  blessing.  Is  it  any"  wonder  that  when  our 
author  tried  to  portray  this  engulfing  exile  experience  in 
the  terms  of  Jeremiah's  figure  the  literal  situation  overflowed 
the  image's  congruity,  —  that  his  imagination  pictured  the 
prophet  as  not  only  surviving  for  three  days  and  three 
nights  inside  a  sea  monster  but  as  composedly  raising,  a 
psalm  of  thanksgiving  for  the  deliverance  thus  wrought } 
Imagery  had  disappeared  in  reality,  corresponding  as  it  did 

^  Cf.  above,  pp.  135-143-  '^  Cf.  above,  pp.  168,  302-304. 

.      [422] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS   LITERATURE 

to  a  great  literal  fact  of  Israel's  inner  history.  So  read,  its 
absurdity  falls  away.  A  New  Testament  writer,  reading  it 
as  a  sign  for  the  generation  of  Jesus'  time,  connects  it  with 
the  mystic  idea  of  death  and  resurrection  (Matt,  xii,  40). 

How  did  the  prophet  behave  subsequently,  or  (if  we  have 
rightly  shifted  from  figurative  to  literal)  how  did  the  nation. 
The  Grace,  chosen,  privileged,  and  commissioned,  respond  to 
the  Gourd,      jfg  prophetic  dutv  ?    The  rest  of  the  book,  carry- 

and  the  •  ,  „  ,  ,        •  •  • 

Self-Willed  mg  the  allegory  onward  to  the  impressive  situa- 
Grudge  j-Jqj^  wherein  the  spiritual  "form  and  pressure" 

of  the  author's  time  is  mirrored,  is  the  answer.  It  resolves 
into  a  well-wrought  scene  of  contrast,  —  the  universal  loving- 
kindness  of  God  for  His  creation  on  the  one  hand,  like  a 
gracious  radiance  over  all  humanity,  and  on  the  other  the 
childish  vexation  of  a  prophet  clinging  to  unrepentant  con- 
sistency and  nursing  a  self-willed  grudge  against  mercy. 
The  metaphor  of  the  gourd,  with  its  ephemeral  connotations, 
serves  to  accentuate  the  essential  smallness  into  which  the 
prophetic  motive  has  fallen.  This  shown,  with  the  prophet 
still  unreconciled  to  the  tender  inconsistency  of  divine  grace, 
the  story  abruptly  ends,  leaving  the  angry  prophet  still  sitting, 
morose  and  unsheltered,  outside  the  city,  waiting  for  a  doom 
that  does  not  fall.  As  we  sense  the  power  of  this  simple 
situation,  with  the  compassion  of  Jehovah  offsetting  it,  we 
feel  that  the  Book  of  Jonah,  for  all  its  mildness  of  method, 
is  more  than  a  reaction,  —  it  is  in  effect  a  tremendous  indict- 
ment, pulsing  with  divine  judgment.  And  that  the  indictment, 
made  when  it  was,  was  all  too  just,  we  have  the  dominant 
race  pride  and  intolerance  and  exclusiveness  of  the  later 
Judaism  to  betoken. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  reactions  and  veiled  protests  that 
this  Puritan  regime  engendered.  There  were  alleviations 
too.  Let  us,  without  closely  specifying,  make  brief  note  of 
their  existence  and  influence. 

[423] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

n 

While  the  Big  Book  is  Growing.  It  will  doubtless  have 
been  observed  that  the  books  of  Ruth  and  Jonah,  which  we 
have  associated  with  certain  reactive  tendencies  during  the 
Puritan  regime,  purport  to  have  drawn  their  themes  from 
the  history  subsequent  to  Moses,  —  Ruth  from  its  primitive 
social  conditions,  Jonah  from  its  inchoate  prophetic  activities ; 
in  both  cases  deducing  a  more  lenient  and  liberal  idea  of 
divine  and  human  nature  than  the  current  sentiment  of 
the  writers'  time  afforded.  This  fact,  as  far  as  it  goes,  is 
not  without  significance.  It  seems  to  imply  that  prevailing 
spiritual  conditions  are  too  narrow.  Ezra's  Pentateuch  — 
with  a  priesthood  administering  its  Levitical  ordinances,  with 
busy  scribes  and  rabbis  "  setting  a  hedge  about  the  law  "  ^  — 
was  not,  could  not  be,  the  sole  Book  of  Life.  It  was,  indeed, 
the  foundation  stone  of  a  magnificent  literary  edifice,  the 
first  division  of  what  was  to  become  a  full  and  rich  and 
varied  library,  but  there  was  yet  much  to  be  built  thereon. 
And  the  materials  for  this  addition,  under  the  care  of  these 
same  scribes  and  men  of  letters,  were  all  the  while  under- 
going the  sifting,  selection,  and  editorship  which  would  fit 
them  for  a  place  in  the  finished  structure.^  So,  during  all 
this  period  which  we  have  roughly  bounded  by  the  compila- 
tion of  Chronicles,  the  "  big  book  "  — the  Hebrew  canon  — 
was  in  silent  process  of  growth.  The  second  division,  a 
kind  of  complement  to  the  Law,  came  to  be  known,  appar- 
ently about  300  B.C.,  as  The  Prophets,  the  largest  division 
of  the  canon,  containing,  along  with  the  prophets  proper, 
also  the  history  which  elicited  their  warnings  and  counsels. 

In  this  chapter  of  our  study  we  have  spoken  of  the 
Puritan  Era,  as  if  it  were  a  time  that  came  and  went ;  and 
we  have  traced  its  beginnings  in  literature  and  inducing 
national  experience.     But  it  was  not  so  truly  a  period  as  a 

1  Cf.  above,  p.  384.  -  See  above,  pp.  375,  376. 

[424] 


THE  PURITAN  ERA  AND  ITS   LITERATURE 

spiritual  attitude,  a  state  of  mind  determined  mainly  by  the 
dominance  of  the  Levitical  element  of  the  Law,  whose  oper- 
Histor  ation,  while  regulative,  was   rigid   and  exacting. 

Charged  with  This  element  had,  however,  a  rival  prior  in  in- 
rophecy  fluence,  namely,  the  Deuteronomic,  which  with 
greater  or  less  dissemination  had  been  influential  since  the 
time  of  Josiah  ;  and  through  this,  the  prophetic  farewell  of 
Moses,  the  distinctively  personal  force  of  the  law  became 
as  it  were  a  household  companion,  honored  and  revered. 
Of  the  succeeding  history,  as  this  was  reduced  to  perma- 
nent form,  the  Deuteronomic  spirit  was  a  potent  factor,  — 
its  style  and  molding  being  quite  perceptible  in  much  of  it. 
Ezra's  incorporation  of  Deuteronomy  with  the  completed 
Pentateuch  gave  increase  to  an  influence  already  powerful, 
an  influence  which  the  Levitical  code  could  share  with  but 
not  impair. 

'"  Never  has  any  people,"  says  Professor  S.  H.  Butcher, 
"  been  so  conscious  of  its  own  spiritual  calling  as  the  Jews  ; 
none  has  had  so  profound  an  intuition  of  the  future.  They 
pondered  their  long  preparation  and  equipment  for  their 
office,  its  unique  design,  their  repeated  lapses,  their  baffled 
hopes,  the  promises  postponed."^  These  words  are  a  scholar's 
tribute  to  a  history  charged  with  prophecy.  We  have  noted 
how  the  body  of  historical  books  from  Joshua  to  Second 
Kings  came  to  be  recognized  as  "Earlier  Prophets";  it 
was  a  just  designation.^  And  when  the  "  Later  Prophets," 
from  Isaiah  to  Malachi,  were  coordinated  with  these  in  one 
collection,  the  meaning  of  Israel's  mission  in  the  world  and 
in  the  ages  received  its  succinct  expression,  sharing  thereby 
with  the  Puritan  Era's  contribution  of  Mosaic  law. 

1  "  Harvard  Lectures  on  Greek  Subjects,"  p.  31. 
^  See  above,  pp.  376,  377. 


[425] 


CHAPTER  VIII 

TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE   HEBREW  CLASSICS 

[Independent  of  eras  and  epochs] 

SUCH  is  the  designation  that  may  fitly  be  given  to  the 
third  and  closing  division  of  the  Hebrew  Scripture  canon, ^ 
on  which,  having  hitherto  been  occupied  mainly  with  the 
field  and  purpose  of  the  other  two,  we  are  now  ready  in 
„,    ,     ,.  ,    turn  to  enter.    The  Hebrew  name  of  this  divi- 

The  Implied 

New  Crite-     sion,  K't/uibhiiii,  "writings,"  has  for  equivalent 
"°°  the  GxQtV.  gj-apkai,  translated  "scriptures"  (cf. 

Matt,  xxvi,  54),  and  used  in  the  New  Testament  to  denote 
the  Old  Testament  as  a  whole.^  Here,  however,  the  word 
is  of  more  restricted  application.  One  might  by  a  modern 
term  translate  it  "literary  works,"  such  being  the  implied 
distinction  of  this  section  as  compared  with  the  others.  It  is 
in  effect  the  consciously  literary  portion  of  the  Hebrew  Bible, 
comprising  the  choice  works  in  which,  as  the  Jewish  men  of 
letters  understood  it,  the  literary  feeling  and  standard,  as  com- 
pared with  the  legal  and  the  prophetic,  came  to  dominance. 
A  classic  is  a  work  that  has  stood  the  test  of  time,  sur- 
viving the  shifts  and  waves  of  immediate  juncture  or  opinion. 
„  ,  ^.     ^       It  takes  account  of  these,  arises  intimately  from 

Relation  to  '  .  -' 

Time  and       them  as  docs  all  vital  literature,  and  has  its  fitted 
Change  effect  upon  them,  but  it  is  based  on  something 

deeper  and  more  permanent,  something  that  without  seem- 
ing to  do  so  gives  more  to  history  than  it  derives  therefrom. 

1  For  the  contents  of  these  three  divisions  see  note  on  "  The  Original 
Order  of  the  Old  Testament  Canon,"  p.  19,  above. 

2  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  title  given  to  the  whole  Old  Testament 
in  the  new  Jewish  version  (1917)  is  "The  Holy  Scriptures." 

[426] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

Hence  the  quality  intimated  aLove.  These  classical  works 
are  for  the  most  part  independent  of  eras  and  epochs  ;  the 
timeless  and  universal  claims  of  human  nature  alone  can 
account  for  them.  They  represent  in  a  true  sense  the  impact 
of  the  Hebrew  mind  on  the  abiding  issues  of  mankind. 

I.  Traits  of  the  Collection  as  a  Whole 

The  fact  that  in  making  up  the  body  of  sacred  text  the 
Jewish  scribes  and  rabbis  set  first  and  greatest  store  by 
the  Law  (the  Pentateuch)  and  secondarily  by  the  Prophets 
(prophets  proper  with  their  setting  of  history  i),  thus  sub- 
serving the  practical  uses  of  Temple  and  synagogue,  need 
not  be  taken  as  an  implication  that  they  deemed  this  third 
division  a  mere  repository  of  left-overs  and  miscellanies. 
The  high  character  of  its  contents  negatives  this  idea.  A 
collection  whose  distinguishing  works  are  Psalms,  Proverbs, 
and  Job  would  hardly  be  held  in  ignoble  estimation  in  the 
varied  values  of  Biblical  thought.  The  scale  of  estimate  is 
likelier,  indeed,  to  have  inclined  the  other  way.  For  those 
who  loved  letters  for  their  own  sake  the  transition  to  this 
division  must  have  been  like  escape  into  a  freer  air;  for  these 
were  the  books  which,  instead  of  being  read  to  the  people 
by  official  requirement,  could  be  read  according  to  taste  and 
convenience  by  them.  It  was  the  division  suited  to  the 
matured  culture  of  a  reading  people. 

Bear  in  mind  what  has  just  been  said  about  the  relation 
of  these  classical  works  to  time  and  change.  We  are  speak- 
ing now  not  of  a  progressive  growth  but  of  an  eventual 
collection.  As  a  collection  it  ranges  over  all  the  history  of 
Israel  from  the  awaking  of  the  literary  sense  onward,  — 
a  history  in  which  several  lines  of  education  in  the  school 
of  Jehovah  were  parallel  and  blended.  In  the  final  make- 
up of  the  canon  these  were  discriminated  and  classified.    So, 

^  1  Cf.  above,  pp.  376,  377. 

[427] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

describing  roughly  the  avails  of  this  third  deposit  as  com- 
pared with  the  other  two,  we  may  say  that  as  they  drew 
from  a  history  charged  with  law  and  with  prophecy  this  in 
turn  draws  from  the  same  history  charged  with  literature. 

Let  us  consider  some  salient  qualities  of  this  collection 
as  a  whole. 

The  most  differentiating,  perhaps,  is  traceable  in  its  atti- 
tude toward  the  sacred  truths  of  life.  This  is  apparent  not 
The  H  m  n  ^^  assertion  but  in  the  unspoken  assumption  and 
Genius  and  atmosphere  of  the  whole  work.  It  is  the  simple 
Initiative  conviction  of  the  writer  that  his  thought  or  vision 
is  his  own,  and  his  faith  that  it  is  as  true  as  if  it  were  an 
attested  revelation  from  heaven.  This  feeling  is  no  novelty ; 
it  lies  at  the  roots  of  the  human  creative  genius.  A  con- 
sciousness often  noted  in  the  swing  and  fervor  of  poetic 
imagination  or  inventive  thought,  it  is  the  intrepid  uprise 
of  human  intuition  to  meet  and  strike  hands  with  some 
phase  of  the  absolute  truth  or  beauty.  Its  presence  here 
is  noteworthy  on  account  of  the  prevailing  idea  of  divine 
revelation  which  obtained  in  a  nation  so  sincerely  the  ward 
and  learners  of  Jehovah. 

What  I  mean  may  be  understood  from  the  current  for- 
mulas of  law  and  prophecy  as  compared  with  the  absence 
of  such  things  in  our  literary  section.  The  constant  attest- 
ing word  of  the  Mosaic  law,  approved  by  miraculous  events, 
was,  "And  Jehovah  spoke  unto  Moses";  and  its  precepts 
were  implicitly  accepted  on  that  score.  Similarly,  the  proph- 
ets' stated  authorization  was,  "Thus  saith  Jehovah";  and 
their  word  was  heeded  without  question  of  its  source.  It 
was  as  if  the  whole  nation  were  consciously  dependent  on  the 
revealed  word  of  God,  which  avowed  itself  infinitely  beyond 
man's  (cf.  Isa.  Iv,  8-11).  Yet  alongside  of  this  we  may  put 
the  noteworthy  fact  that  no  such  assertion  or  assumption  is 
made  in  the  books  we  are  considering.  Their  typical  didactic 
formula,  rather,  is,  "  Incline  thine  ear,  and  hear  the  words 

[428] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

of  the  wise  "  (cf.  Prov.  xxii,  17).  All  that  is  presupposed  is 
the  spontaneous  uprise  and  free  play  of  human  aspiration  and 
intellect  (cf .  what  is  said  of  Our  Lady  Wisdom,  Prov.  viii, 
22-31)  working  out  its  own  salvation  as  in  the  sight  of 
Jehovah.  In  this  the  nation's  highest  literary  genius  is  en- 
gaged. A  distinctively  human  movement  this,  yet  accepted 
in  the  sacred  canon  as  an  integral  strand  in  the  web  of  the 
Word  of  God,  and,  indeed,  on  the  same  plane  of  revelatory 
value.  Even  its  obscurest  writer,  using  a  word  peculiar  to 
the  divine  claim,  dares  to  say,  «'?/;«  Jiaggcber,  "  oracle  of 
the  strong  man"  (Prov.  xxx,  i),  while  its  greatest  is  bold 
to  report  undying  utterances  of  God  out  of  the  whirlwind 
of  nature  (Job  xxxviii-xli). 

Note.  This  sense  of  the  intimacy  of  human  genius  with  the  answer- 
ing collaboration  of  the  divine,  as  referred  to  above,  is  poetically  described 
by  Browning  in  the  words  of  Abt  Vogler,  as  the  latter  tries  to  account 
for  the  transcendent  worth  and  beauty  of  his  musical  improvisation : 

".  .  .  for  it  seemed,  it  was  certain,  to  match  man's  birth. 
Nature  in  turn  conceived,  obeying  an  impulse  as  I  ; 

And  the  emulous  heaven  yearned  down,  made  effort  to  reach  the  earth, 
As  the  earth  had  done  her  best,  in  my  passion,  to  scale  the  sky." 

This  merely  puts  in  intenser  form  the  felt  cooperation,  in  the  pro- 
ductions of  the  purest  minds,  of  divine  and  human. 

Another  thing  to  be  noted  of  this  section  of  Scripture  is 
that  it  is  concerned  more  directly  than  are  the  others  with 
Th   s  h         ^^  passions  and  activities  and  duties  —  in  a  word, 
of  Personal     with  the  character  —  of  the  individual  man.    The 
*  "^^  Law  deals  with  the  affairs  of  church  and  state  as 

a  whole  and  with  men's  duties  in  prescribed  relation  thereto. 
Prophecy  is  concerned  with  Israel's  foreign  relations  and 
with  the  nation's  moral  integrity  in  view  of  its  destiny  of 
exile  and  opportunity.  All  this  has  its  bearing  on  the  indi- 
vidual, for  a  nation's  obligations  are  only  those  of  the  indi- 
vidual writ  large  ;  but  its  edicts  and  warnings  are  addressed 
for  the  most  part  to  the  people  in  the  mass,  and  do  not  go 

[429] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

far  to  enter  their  homes  and  fields  and  business.  It  has  been 
noted,  as  a  kind  of  exception,  that  Ezekiel,  among  his  neigh- 
bor-exiles by  the  Chebar,  brings  the  sense  of  sin  and  justice 
home  to  the  individual  person  (Ezek.  xviii;  xxxiii,  12-20),^ 
but  this  is  not  like  putting  oneself  by  the  side  of  the  common 
man  and  speaking  to  his  heart.  The  Law  and  the  Prophets 
have  their  proper  spheres  of  counsel  and  warning  in  attending 
to  the  domestic  and  foreign  relations  of  the  people  as  a  com- 
munal unit.  It  is  in  this  third  section  that  the  individual,  from 
the  awaking  of  the  literary  sense  onward,  comes  to  his  own. 
That  is  one  reason  why  the  section  is  so  independent  of  eras 
and  epochs.  In  the  eternal  demands  of  human  welfare  and 
righteousness  these  do  not  count.  Its  works  deal  in  various 
ways  with  personal  character  and  conduct ;  we  see  the  individ- 
ual man  in  worship,  in  meditation,  in  counsel  and  controversy, 
at  work,  at  intercourse  and  business,  at  contrite  confession  of 
needs  and  sins.  The  whole  gamut  of  personal  life,  so  far  as 
relates  to  morals  and  wise  conduct,  is  traversed.  All  this 
works  together  to  give  this  collection  of  classic  "writings  " 
a  central  and  supreme  place  in  the  heart  of  the  Bible. 

The  literary  sense  governing  the  works  of  the  collection 
naturally  gave  rise  to  special  elaboration  and  artistry  after 
Outcome  in  ^^^  Hebrew  manner,  instances  of  which  will  be 
Literary        noted  in  their  place.   One  gets  from  each  of  them 

Mind  and  Art  r         •  t-i  .    ti       ,i        t, 

a  sense  01  uniqueness,  i  hey  are  not  like  the  lit- 
erary works  of  other  nations.  Distinctions  of  lyric,  epic, 
drama  are  absent  or  only  inchoate.  And  yet  many  of  them,  in 
their  way,  have  achieved  unique  distinction  as  masterpieces, 
specimens,  so  to  speak,  of  what  Hebrew  writers  can  do. 
It  is  as  if  each  of  the  native  types  of  literary  form,^  devel- 
oped through  years  and  ages  from  the  primitive  spoken  to 
the  matured  written  organism  and  style,^  were  represented, 
as  if  for  the  world  to  judge,  by  its  finest  and  best  product. 

1  Cf.  'above,  p.  267. 

'^  See  "The  Native  Mold  of  Literary  Form,"  pp.  64-72,  above. 

'  See  above,  pp.  13-16. 

[  430  ] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

The  fact  is  to  be  noted  that  this  final  division  of  the 
Hebrew  canon  was  being  made  up  just  as  the  Hebrew  type 
of  literature  was  coming  out  of  its  age-long  seclusion  into 
the  notice  of  the  larger  world,  a  candidate,  so  to  speak,  for 
recognition  and  power  among  the  cultural  forces  of  man- 
kind. As  such  it  need  not  apologize  for  existence  or  com- 
proraise  with  other  literatures  for  relative  merit ;  it  could 
trust  its  own  intrinsic  vitality.  But  neither,  on  the  other 
hand,  need  it  put  its  most  provincial  wares  forward.  This 
newest  division,  accordingly,  may  be  regarded  as  a  kind  of 
culmination  wherein  are  displayed  the  supreme  achievements 
of  the  Hebrew  religion  and  thought  detached  in  a  degree 
from  the  chosen  people's  narrow  history  and  brought  nearer 
to  the  common  frontier  where  the  mind  of  other  nations  can 
fraternize  with  it. 

It  is  also  worthy  of  note,  that  while  the  make-up  of  this 
third  division  was  still  a  matter  fluid  and  undetermined,  the 
earliest  version  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  (the  Septua- 
gint,  264  B.C.  onward)  was  also  being  made,  thus  giving 
the  Hebrew  thought  currency  in  the  most  highly  developed 
language  and  by  the  side  of  the  most  cultivated  literature 
of  the  world.  In  this  fusing  of  languages  the  latest  section 
of  the  canon,  as  a  representative  literary  infiuAce,  would 
bear  no  unimportant  part.  An  indication  of  this,  I  think, 
is  afforded  by  the  changes  of  distribution  and  arrangement 
which  the  collection  underwent  as  soon  as  it  was  done  into 
Greek,  apparently  to  make  the  literary  tissue  more  homo- 
geneous. Job  was  put  before  Psalms  ;  Ruth  was  transferred 
to  its  more  proper  place  by  the  side  of  Judges  ;  Lamenta- 
tions was  placed  after  Jeremiah  ;  Esther  after  Nehemiah  ; 
Daniel  was  adjudged  worthy  of  a  place  among  the  greater 
prophets  ^ ;  while  the  cultus  books,  Ezra,  Nehemiah,  and 
Chronicles,  which  had  occupied  a  place  at  the  end  as  a 
supplement,^  were  transferred  to  their  proper  places  after 

1  Cf.  above,  p.  281.  ^  Cf.  above,  p.  405. 

[431] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

2  Kings.  Thus  this  third  division  ceased  to  function  as  a 
coordinate  element  of  the  canon,  and  its  treasury  of  the 
choice  classics  —  the  so-called  poetical  books  —  occupies,  in 
our  modern  Bible,  a  place  in  the  center  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, with  the  body  of  great  prophecy  succeeding.  Such 
arrangement  improves  the  order  in  which,  for  modem  uses, 
the  Bible  may  be  read.  , 

As  we  are  studying  the  Old  Testament  literature  for  the 
most  part  in  the  order  dictated  by  history,  we  will  continue  to 
follow  the  history  of  arrangement  also,  taking  up  the  books 
of  this  division  in  the  order  determined  by  the  Jewish  scribes. 
Some  of  the  books  have  already  been  partly  or  sufficiently 
discussed  ;  what  remains  to  be  said  about  them  will  come 
up  in  its  due  order. 

II.    The  Three  Great  Classics 

In  the  case  of  these  three  books,  Psalms,  Proverbs,  and 
Job,  though  so  weighty,  there  is  not  the  same  reason  for 
detailed  description  and  analysis  that  there  was  in  the 
case  of  the  great  prophets.  Their  independence  of  historic 
eras  and  epochs  makes  such  treatment  unnecessary ;  their 
subject  matter  in  part  forbids  it.  It  will  be  more  advisable 
rather  to  inquire  after  the  literary  form  and  workmanship, 
with  its  bearing  on  the  idea,  and  after  the  leading  idea  itself. 


The  Five  Books  of  Psalms.  Cited  by  our  Lord  as  if  rep- 
resenting a  specific  type  of  scripture  literature  (Luke  xxiv, 
44),  the  Psalms  merit  their  rank  at  the  head  of  this 
division  as  a  treasury  of  the  choice  lyric  poetry  of  Israel, 
a  deposit  of  the  verse  that  all  through  the  history  from 
the  awaking  of  the  literary  sense  onward  was  most  potent 
to  find  and  form  the  inner  mind  of  the  Israelitish  people. 
Thus   they  embody   what    is   most  genuine  and   hearty  in 

[432] 


TREASURY  OB^  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

the  soul  of  man,  what  wells  up  from  his  deepest  nature 
in  the  unforced  yet  finely  ordered  language  of  prayer  and 
praise  and  song.  The  name  given  the  book  by  the  scribes 
at  its  completion  was  scphcr  t'/iillini,  "  Book  of  Praises," 
as  designating  the  ruling  sentiment  especially  of  the  later 
collections,  referring  thus  to  their  use  in  public  or  private 
worship.  Other  names  occur  for  individual  psalms,  such  as 
"a  song,"  "a  prayer,"  "an  instruction"  {viasc/nl).  The 
Greek  name,  given  to  the  individual  poem  when  the  book  had 
become  a  part  of  the  Septuagint  version,  was  psalmos,  a  trans- 
lation of  the  Hebrew  specific  term  iuizmor,  meaning  "a  song 
set  to  stringed  instruments,"  or  as  we  should  say,  with  orches- 
tra accompaniment,  —  an  obvious  reference  to  the  use  made 
of  these  poems  in  the  late  organized  Temple  service. 

These  final  names  for  the  Psalms;  as  single  poems  and 
as  a  compiled  book,  are  an  undesigned  designation  of  the 
The  Lyrical  Hebrew  native  aptitude.  As  already  in  part  inti- 
Genius  and  mated,^  this  was  not  for  war  or  government  or 
imu  us  scholarship  or  art  —  what  might  be  called  the 
aristocratic  endowments.  The  one  art  in  which  they  excelled 
sprang  from  and  in  turn  laid  hold  on  the  mind  of  the 
common  people.  It  was  the  art  of  sacred  lyric  poetry,  which 
when  it  became  steady  and  self-conscious  took  the  names 
by  which  we  know  it,  —  for  the  instrumental  specifica- 
tion of  mizmor  is  exactly  paralleled  by  lyric  {lunkos),  "  for 
the  lyre"  ;  and  "praises,"  being  the  uprise  of  the  heart  to 
God,  are  the  most  buoyant  and  heartfelt  subject  matter  for 
such  expression.  In  a  word,  the  Psalms  embody  the  thoughts 
and  feelings  that  the  nation  through  all  its  history  could 
sing ;  that  is,  put  into  the  most  spontaneous  form  of  ex- 
pression. How  truly  these  lyrics  give  voice  to  the  deep 
music  of  human  nature  is  evident  in  the  fact  that  the  Book 
of  Psalms  has  become,  by  translation  or  virtual  paraphrase, 
the  hymn  book  of  a  whole  world.    To  say  that  these  lyrics 

See  above,  pp.  36-38. 
[  433  ] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

are  the  Hebrew  religions  poetry  —  as  if  they  must  needs  be 
separated  from  poems  of  other  sentiment, 

And  lovers'  songs  be  turned  to  holy  psalms,  — 

is  in  fact  no  differentiation  except  in  modern  estimate. 
Secular  and  rehgious  were  not  dissociated  in  ancient  thought 
or  emotion  ;  all  was  religious  among  people  who  lived  in 
the  conscious  presence  of  a  personal  and  accessible  God. 
As  to  the  occasion  of  these  lyrical  uprises,  Professor 
Palgrave's  definition  of  the  lyric  may  perhaps  furnish  a  fit 
suggestion.  "Lyrical,"  he  says,^  "has  been  here  held  essen- 
tially to  imply  that  each  Poem  shall  turn  on  some  single 
thought,  feeling,  or  situation."  In  the  case  of  our  Psalms 
it  is  as  if  the  occasion  of  the  lyric  mood  were  determined  by 
a  kingly  mind  and  sung  into  a  people's  heart.  These  single 
incitements,  among  the  Hebrews,  were  such  as  may  be  pred- 
icated' of  a  people  to  whom  their  divinely  guided  history 
was  a  very  vital  "thing  ^ ;  they  were  like  a  translation  or 
rather  transmutation  of  their  history,  with  its  dimly  sensed 
destiny,  into  personal  experience  and  devotion,  —  yet  not 
so  that  specific  events  or  situations  are  easily  traceable  but 
rather  their  fragrance  and  power.  Thus  it  was  that  the 
chosen  people's  faith  was  found  and  formed  through  the 
molding  power  of  lyric  poetry. 

Note.  As  the  lyric  influence  of  song  has  accompanied  the  whole 
Hebrew  history,  it  has  come  several  times  to  consideration  in  the  fore- 
going pages,  both  in  general  terms  and  as  connected  with  the  composi- 
tion and  collection  of  Psalms.  See  "  The  Song,"  pp.  66,  67,  under 
"  The  Native  Mold  of  Literary  Form."  See  also  "  David's  Part  in  the 
Literary  Awakening,"  pp.  81-83 ;  "  Of  the  Davidic  Influence,"  pp.  89-92, 
for  the  general  beginnings  of  Psalm  composition  ;  and  "  The  Collecting 
of  Psalms"  (by  Hezekiah),  pp.  197-201,  for  the  conjectured  further 
stage  of  the  Psalm  movement.  This  brings  us  to  the  matured  phase, 
which  is  the  subject  now  before  us. 

1  In  the  preface  to  his  "  Golden  Treasury  of  Songs  and  Lyrics." 
"^  See  above,  pp.  37,  38. 

[434] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

As  regards  the  authorship  of  the  Psalms,  the  fact  that 
the  titles  prefixed  to  two  thirds  of  them  are  evidently  later 
^jjg  additions  and  so  not  implicitly  to  be  trusted  has 

Source  in  a  given  rise  to  a  veritable  riot  of  conjecture  on  the 
ersonahty  ^^^^  ^£  modern  critics,  who,  recognizing  merely 
scribal  rather  than  original  authority,  perhaps  felt  freer  to 
doubt  and  discard,^  —  a  Reeling  which  may  be  humored  all 
the  way  from  misgiving  to  stark  denial.  At  any  rate,  these 
titles,  which  were  once  deemed  as  truly  inspired  as  the  rest, 
have  very  likely  been  suffered  to  pass  under  un^ue  depreci- 
ation. We  may  accept  them  for  what  they  are  obviously 
worth.  They  have  the  distinction  of  being  the  earliest  exam- 
ples of  Biblical  editorship  and  estimate  ;  they  are  judgments 
passed  by  scribes  whose  minds  were  steeped  in  the  literary 
values  of  their  race  and  history.  As  such  they  belong  to 
tfte  avails  of  the  Jewish  mind  and  culture. 

Note.  Of  the  Psalm  authorship  imputed  by  the  titles  we  may  quote 
the  account  given  by  J.  W.  Thirtle,  in  "The  Titles  of  the  Psalms,"  p.3: 

Speaking  of  the  titles  as  a  whole,  it  is  well  ...  to  notice  that  just  one 
hundred  of  the  psalnas  are  in  such  a  manner  referred  to  their  reputed 
authors  —  one  (90)  is  ascribed  to  Moses,  seventy-three  to  David,  two 
(72,  127)  to  Solomon,  twelve  to  Asaph,  eleven  to  the  sons  of  Korah,  and 
one  (89)  to  Ethan  the  Ezrahite.  From  this  it  appears  that  David  is  t/ie 
psalmist  —  no  other  writer  can  overshadow  his  fame;  and  it  is  easy  to 
understand  how  it  has  come  about  for  the  entire  collection  to  pass  by  his 
name. 

Quite  independently  of  the  titles,  however,  one  gets  from 
an  unbiased  conversance  with  the  Psalms  the  feeling  that 
their  organic  sentiment  is  not  scattered  and  miscellaneous 
but  individualized  and  specific, — in  other  words,  that  it 
derives  ultimately  from  an  author  who  has  impressed  the 
stamp  of  undying  personality  upon  his  words  and,  as  these 
are  winged  with  song,  upon  his  people.    As  to  whose  this 

^  A  little  like  Adam  Bede,  maybe,  who  when  of  a  Sunday  morning  he 
read  his  Bible,  generally  in  implicit  faith,  "enjoyed  the  freedom  of  occa- 
sionally differing  from  an  Apocryphal  writer." 

[  435  ] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

personality  is  there  can  be  but  one  answer.  Of  all  the 
personalities  of  Old  Testament  history  —  one  need  not 
except  Jacob  or  Moses  or  Samuel  —  David's  is  incom- 
parably the  best  known,  the  most  loved,  the  most  bracing, 
the  most  prophetic.  This  comes  largely  from  his  life, 
which  in  First  and  Second  Samuel  is  more  fully  told  than 
that  of  any  other  old-time  personage,  and  which,  in  spite  of 
grievous  and  sincerely  repented  faults,  was  a  sweet  and 
refining  influence  on  all  classes.  Mostly,  however,  it  comes 
from  the  way  in  which  he  coined  his  inner  life  —  the  life 
of  a  king  who  remembered  his  shepherd  days  and  who 
could  be  humble  and  contrite  —  into  the  lyric  language  of 
the  heart.  It  matters  little  whether  we  have  his  exact  words 
or  not,  whether  we  can  certainly  trace  individual  poems  to 
him  or  not.  The  ruling  spirit  of  the  Psalms  is  Davidic. 
Psalms  written  by  others,  or  at  a  later  day,  do  not  lose  tfie 
vital  stamp  of  his  personal  fervor  and  faith.  The  vigor  of 
trust,  the  purity  of  resolve,  the  deep  sense  and  confession 
of  sin,  the  sensitiveness  to  the  wickedness  and  treachery  of 
ungodly  men,  are  spiritual  qualities  wrought  out  in  the 
personal  devotion  and  experience  of  King  David,  the  king 
whose  memory  was  cherished  as  "the  man  after  God's  own 
heart"  (cf.  i  Sam.  xiii,  14;  Acts  xiii,  22),  the  type  of 
true  kingliness. 

NoTK.  How  truly  the  utterances  of  the  Psalms  were  referred  by  the 
compilers  to  David's  personality  is  seen  in  the  titles  in  which  specific 
events  of  his  life  are  mentioned  as  the  occasion,  most  of  which  events 
are  taken  from  his  life  as  a  man  —  and,  indeed,  as  an  outlaw  —  among 
men.  The  list  of  these  is  given  in  the  note,  pp.  90,  91,  above.  Of 
course  it  is  to  be  noted  that  these  are  only  fourteen  out  of  the  seventy- 
three  Psalms  ascribed  to  David,  the  rest  being  supposedly  the  work  of 
the  royal  poet. 

David's  personal  attitude  toward  his  subjects  and  toward 
his  kingly  duty  is  significantly  indicated  in  "  the  last  words  of 
David,"   2   Sam.  xxiii,    1-7.     The  passage  embodies  much 

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of  the  sentiment  that  one  finds  throughout  the  Davidic 
Psalms  ;  the  main  simile  is  of  special  fitness  and  beauty. 

The  saying  ^  of  David  the  son  of  Jesse, 
And  the  saying  ^  of  the  man  raised  on  high, 
The  anointed  of  the  God  of  Jacob, 
And  the  sweet  singer  of  Israel : 
The  spirit  of  the  Lord  spoke  by  me. 
And  His  word  was  upon  my  tongue. 

The  God  of  Israel  said, 
The  Rock  of  Israel  spoke  to  me  : 
"  Ruler  over  men  shall  be  the  righteous, 
Even  he  that  ruleth  in  the  fear  of  God, 
And  as  the  light  of  the  morning,  when  the  sun  riseth, 
A  morning  without  clouds  ; 
When  through  clear  shining  after  rain, 
The  tender  grass  springeth  out  of  the  earth." 

For  is  not  my  house  established  with  God  ? 
For  an  everlasting  covenant  He  hath  made  with  me, 
Ordered  in  all  things,  and  sure  ; 
For  all  my  salvation,  and  all  my  desire. 
Will  He  not  make  it  to  grow  ? 

But  the  ungodly,  they  are  as  thorns  thrust  away,  all  of  them. 
For  they  cannot  be  taken  with  the  hand  ; 
But  the  man  that  toucheth  them 
Must  be  armed  with  iron  and  the  staff  of  a  spear ; 
And  they  shall  be  utterly  burned  with  fire  in  their  place. 

These  words  may  or  may  not  have  been  actually  written 
by  David,  but  one  cannot,  on  cold  critical  grounds,  deny 
the  truth  of  the  picture  they  give  of  '"  the  sweet  singer 
of  Israel  "  devoting  his  royal  gift  and  art  to  promote  the 
gentle  growth  of  justice  and  well-being  among  the  people  of 
whom  he  is  the  anointed  king.  And  the  love  and  idealizing 
devotion  of  the  people  was  the  response. 

The  Book  of  Psalms  as  we  have  it  is  the  result  of  several 
collections  or  compilations  made  at  different  times  in  the 
history  of  Israel,  doubtless  for  liturgical  uses  in  the  service 

1  Lit.  "oracle";  of.  above,  p.  429.  I  use  here  the  translatipn  of  "The 
Holy  Scriptures,"  the  recent  Jewish  version. 

[437  J 


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of  the  second  Temple.  These  compilations  eventually  came 
to  final  and  canonical  form  —  conjecturally  about  the  middle 
The  Final  of  the  sccond  ccntury  before  Christ  —  in  five 
Distribution  books,  making  up  as  a  whole  the  collection  desig- 
nated by  the  various  names,  sepher  fhillim,  "  Book  of 
Praises,"  the  Psalms  (our  Lord's  term,  Luke  xx,  42  ;  xxiv, 
44 ;  cf.  Acts  i,  20),  or  simply  "  David  "  (cf.  Heb.  iv,  7).  The 
fact  that  the  first  Psalm  is  obviously  a  prologue  to  the  whole 
collection,  and  the  last  a  liturgical  summary  of  its  leading 
character  as  a  book  of  praises,  indicates  that  the  completed 
book  was  regarded  as  of  unitary  trend  and  spirit.  In  fact, 
until  recent  revised  versions  were  made  English  readers  were 
.  not  aware  of  its  division  into  five  books,  this  feature  being 
retained  only  in  the  Hebrew  ;  though  the  marks  of  cleavage 
are  plain  enough,  once  pointed  out.  It  is  useful  to  take  note 
of  this  distribution,  as  it  furnishes  some  key  to  the  move- 
ment of  the  Davidic  poetry  during  the  five  hundred  years 
of  its  power  in  the  Temple  and  the  nation. 

Note.  In  each  of  the  five  books  the  end  limit  is  indicated  by  a 
doxology.  the  last  doxology  extending  to  the  length  of  a  whole  psalm  (cl). 
The  following  list  gives  the  inclusion  of  the  books,  with  the  doxologies 
that  mark  the  end  of  them. 

Book  I.    Psalms  i-xli 

[Psalm  i,  Prologue  to  the  whole  Book  of  Psalms] 

Doxology,  Psa.  xli,  1 3 : 

Blessed  be  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel, 
From  everlasting  and  to  everlasting. 
Amen,  and  Amen. 

Book  II.    Psalms  xlii-lxxii 

Doxology,  Psa.  Ixxii,  18,  19: 

Blessed  be  Jehovah  God,  the  God  of  Israel, 
Who  only  doeth  wondrous  things  : 
And  blessed  be  his  glorious  name  for  ever : 
And  let  the  whole  earth  be  filled  with  his  glory. 
•  Amen,  and  Amen. 

[438] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

To  this  is  added  a  subscript  (vs.  20) :  "  The  prayers  of  David  the 
son  of  Jesse  are  ended." 

Book  III.    Psalms  Ixxiii-lxxxix 

Doxology,  Psa.  Ixxxix,  52: 

Blessed  be  Jehovah  for  evermore. 
Amen,  and  Amen. 

Book  IV.    Psabns  xc-cvi 

Doxology,  Psa.  cvi,  48  : 

Blessed  be  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel, 
From  everlasting  even  to  everlasting. 
And  let  all  the  people  say,  Amen. 
Praise  ye  Jehovah. 1 

Book  V.    Psalms  C7>ii-cl 

Doxological  Psalm  for  the  five  books,  Psalm  cl. 

Praise  ye  Jehovah. 1 

Praise  God  in  his  sanctuary  : 

Praise  him  in  the  firmament  of  his  power. 

Praise  him  for  his  mighty  acts  : 

Praise  him  according  to  his  excellent  greatness. 

Praise  him  with  trumpet  sound : 

Praise  him  with  psaltery  and  harp. 

Praise  him  with  timbrel  and  dance  : 

Praise  him  with  stringed  instruments  and  pipe. 

Praise  him  with  loud  cymbals  : 

Praise  him  with  high  sounding  cymbals. 

Let  everything  that  hath  breath  praise  Jehovah. 

Praise  ye  Jehovah.i 

As  one  looks  more  closely  into  the  matter,  however, 
it  becomes  evident  that  the  scribes  and  clergy,  in  making 
up  the  five  books,  availed  themselves  of  many  earlier  groups 
or  collections,  representing  different  waves  of  religious  senti- 
ment or  different  liturgical  uses  in  the  service  of  Temple 
and  synagogue.    It  is  impossible  on  the  scale  of  our  present 

^  Heb.  Hallelujah,  a  formula  of  praise  which,  beginning  at  Psa.  civ,  35, 
becomes  a  frequent  and  characteristic  feature  of  the  later  Psalms. 

[439] 


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study  to  trace  these  in  detail  ^  or  to  fit  them  conjecturally 
into  the  thought  and  rehgion  of  their  various  times.  Nor, 
indeed,  is  there  practical  occasion.  Worship,  in  its  elements 
of  prayer,  confession,  meditation,  thanksgiving,  and  praise, 
is  a  thing  timeless  and  universal.  Besides,  any  new  material 
brought  from  time  to  time  into  the  Psalter  would  be  subject, 
like  the  hymns  in  our  modern  hymn  books,  to  such  changes 
as  would  bring  them  up  to  the  date  and  occasion  of  their 
use.  This  would  tend  to  make  the  styles  of  different  eras 
uniform  and  to  change  specific  situations,  historical  or  per- 
sonal, to  the  fitting  idiom  of  a  worshiping  community  or 
congregation  .2 

Note.  An  interesting  illustration  of  how  a  poem  of  quaint  earlier 
style  and  particular  situation  may  be  changed  to  the  sentiment  of  a 
general  congregational  hymn  may  be  seen  in  the  use  made  of  Bunyan's 
verses  on  \'aliant-for-Truth  in  the  "  Pilgrim's  Progress "'  by  "  The  Eng- 
lish Hymnal  "  (1906).  The  original  and  the  modernized  are  here  shown 
side  by  side : 


Who  would  True  \'alour  see, 
Let  him  come  hither  ; 
One  here  will  constant  be, 
Come  Wind,  come  Weather. 
There  's  no  Discouragement 
Shall  make  him  once  relent 
His  first  avow'd  intent 

To  be  a  Pilgrim. 
Who  so  beset  him  round 
With  dismal  Stories, 
Do  but  themselves  confound. 
His  Strength  the  more  is ; 
No  Lion  can  him  fright, 
He  '11  with  a  Giant  fight, 
But  he  will  have  a  right 

To  be  a  Pilgrim. 


He  who  would  \aliant  be 
'Gainst  all  disaster. 
Let  him  in  constancy 

Follow  the  Master. 
There  's  no  discouragement 
Shall  make  him  once  relent 
His  first  avowed  intent 

To  be  a  pilgrim. 
Who  so  beset  him  round 
With  dismal  stories, 
Do  but  themselves  confound  — 

His  strength  the  more  is. 
No  foes  shall  stay  his  might, 
Though  he  with  giants  fight : 
He  will  make  good  his  right 

To  be  a  pilgrim. 


^  For  a  general  treatment  of  the  Rook  of  Psalms  from  this  point  of  view, 
among  others,  see  W.  R. .Smith,  "  The  Old  Testament  in  the  Jewish  Church," 
lecture  vii. 

-  Cf.  above,  pp.  82,  91,  92. 

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TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

Hobgoblin  nor  foul  Fiend  Since,  Lord,  thou  dost  defend 

Can  daunt  his  spirit ;  Us  with  thy  Spirit, 

He  knows  he  at  the  end  We  know  we  at  the  end 
Shall  Life  inherit.  Shall  life  inherit. 

Then  Fancies  fly  away,  Then  fancies  flee  away ! 

He  '11  fear  not  what  men  say,  I  '11  fear  not  what  men  say, 

He  '11  labor  night  and  day  I  '11  labor  night  and  day 
To  be  a  Pilgrim.  To  be  a  pilgrim. 

It  may  be  that  the  work  of  adopting  and  adapting  the  lyric  poems 
of  Israel  to  needed  public  uses  was  as  flexible  as  that. 

Five  books  of  poetry,  gathered  out  of  the  lyric  deposits 
of  five  centuries,  composed  by  many  unknown  writers  and 
The  Davidic  ^^^S^^S  guilds,  reflecting  the  fortunes  of  Israel 
Keynote  and  from  the  first  great  king's  reign  to  a  period  far 
ea  ng  ea  j^gyQj^^j  ^\^q  j-gign  of  any  Judean  monarch,  yet  all 
identified  with  the  name  of  David  and  set  like  a  mighty 
chorus  to  "the  musical  instruments  of  David  the  man  of 
God"  (Neh.  xii,  36,  45,  46),  —  what  then  was  the  unitary 
and  cohesive  sentiment  underlying  it  all,  or,  to  put  it  in 
musical  terms,  the  keynote  and  leading  idea  justifying  its 
relation  to  that  revered  personality  ?  Can  we  hope  to  get 
at  it  in  some  luminous  and  comprehensive  distinction } 
And  if  so,  can  we  catch  from  time  to  time  such  echoes  or 
undertones  of  it  as  will  make  us  aware  that  the  Davidic 
strain  is  clear  and  continuous  .'' 

I  think  we  can.  I  think  we  can  trace  through  the  Psalms 
a  deep  undertone  of  harmony  with  the  most  far-reaching 
utterances  of  the  prophets.  They,  as  we  have  noted,  cen- 
tered the  eventual  leadership  and  blessedness  of  Israel  in 
David  (cf.  Jer.  xxx,  9  ;  Ezek.  xxxiv,  23,  24  ;  xxxvii,  24, 
25  ;  Hos.  iii,  5),  and  prophesied  for  him  a  perpetual  king- 
dom (Jer.  xxxiii,  17;  Isa.  Iv,  3);  he  is  the  idealized  founder 
of  the  Messianic  line.  Of  this  he  himself  was  dimly  aware, 
though  little  realizing  what  it  meant ;  as  one  can  read  in 
2  Sam.  vii,  where  Jehovah  gives  his  dynasty  the  promise  of 

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perpetuity  and  unique  greatness.  He  took  this  promise  royally 
to  heart,  and  from  that  time  sought  in  self-consecration  and 
in  the  poetic  gift  that  was  his  to  realize,  in  his  own  life 
and  in  his  leadership  of  his  people,  what  it  meant  to  be 
"Jehovah's  anointed."  ^  The  term  was  always  a  sacred  one 
to  him  (cf.  I  Sam.  xxiv,  6;  xxvi,  9;  2  Sam.  i,  14);  it 
appealed  to  the  poetic  idealism  of  his  nature  and  to  his 
profound  sense  of  accountability  for  the  use  of  the  distinc- 
tion. With  him  this  feeling  went  far  beyond  any  care  for 
the  display  or  self-indulgence  of  royalty.  It  kept  him 
humble  and  tender-hearted  ;  it  brought  him  back  repentant 
from  his  grievous  faults  ;  it  made  him  strongly  sensitive 
against  treachery  and  injustice  ;  in  a  word,  it  put  him  by 
sincere  love  on  a  level  with  all  grades  and  classes  of  his 
subjects.  The  Psalms  ascribed  to  him  are  a  reflection  of 
all  this.  Such,  in  its  fitting  nuances,  is  the  Davidic  "  note." 
It  is  as  if  he  would  take  his  beloved  people  into  fellowship 
with  him,  that  they  might  in  music  and  song  explore  the 
values  of  life  together ;  much  as  we  see  later  'when  our 
Lord,  as  Son  of  Man,  taught  his  disciples  what  the  true 
man,  man  in  type  and  adultness,  must  be  and  do.^  In 
this  sense  his  poetic  work  was  truly  Messianic. 

Thus  we  find,  as  we  look  at  the  Psalms  ascribed  by  title 
to  David,  that  though  we  cannot  certainly  deem  them  his 
personal  composition,  we  can  call  them  Davidic.  Their 
specific  quality  identifies  them.  This  qualitative  term 
"Davidic"  stands  for  much  more  than  Professor  Cheyne 
credits  it  with;  he  says  it  is  "but  a  symbol  for  a  certain 
bold  originality  of  style  combined  with  a  deeply  devotional 
spirit."  ^  It  is  indeed  all  this  ;  but  one  cannot  well  miss 
also  the  intensely  spiritual  and  individual  note  —  tenderness 
with  strength,  humility  with  kingliness,  loyalty  to  Jehovah, 

1  Or  as  the  Hebrew  word  always  is,  "Jehovah's  messiah." 

^  See  below,  pp.  541  f. 

*  Cheyne,  "The  Book  of  Psalms"  (Parchment  ed.).  Introduction,  p.  xi. 

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TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

with  an  indignation  against  treachery  and  hardness  of 
heart  which  is  essentially  the  cry  of  an  outraged  humanity. 
And  this  stamped  itself  indelibly  on  the  Psalms  that  suc- 
ceeded his  time,  giving  them  harmony  of  sentiment  and 
tone  and  keeping  the  successive  collections  in  the  essen- 
tially Messianic  rather  than  in  the  narrower  dynastic  or 
ecclesiastical  line.  This  is  suggestively  shown,  I  think,  in 
Books  III  to  V,  in  the  occasional  Davidic  pieces  that  were 
admitted  after  "the  prayers  of  David  the  son  of  Jesse  are 
ended "  (Psa.  Ixxii,  20).  The  characteristic  Davidic  sen- 
timent reappears ;  it  is  as  if  these  pieces  were  put  in  to 
tone  up  what  might  otherwise  be  too  conventional  or  too 
purely  liturgical.  It  is  like  a  return  to  the  original  keynote 
and  leading  idea  when  these  tend  to  be  obscured  by  later 
modulations.  The  lyric  note  must  be  true  to  its  Davidic 
power  and  prophecy. 

Note.  It  is  interesting  to  observe  how  in  the  successive  books  of 
the  Psalms  occasional  intercalated  pieces,  as  it  were  landmarks,  serve 
to  keep  the  meaning  and  perpetuity  of  the  Davidic  line  continuous. 
This  Messianic  promise  could  easily  become  dim  and  doubtful  as  the 
nation  passed  through  vicissitudes  of  evil  reigns,  captivities,  and  the 
transition  from  monarchical  to  priestly  government,  but  the  spark  of 
Messianism  must  not  be  wholly  quenched.  In  Book  I  (after  the  indi- 
vidualized introduction,  Psa.  i)  the  second  Psalm  gives  the  sublime 
"  decree,"  like  the  divine  interpretation  of  the  promise  of  2  Sam.  vii 
(cf.  vss.  14-16),  with  its  tremendous  range  of  kingly  destiny.  This  may 
be  regarded  as  the  keynote  in  its  most  vigorous  and  trenchant  expression. 
There  is  no  occasion  to  repeat  this  so  long  as  the  course  of  psalmody 
(in  Books  I  and  II)  is  set  to  it ;  though  at  the  end  of  Book  II  (after  the 
reiterated  Davidic  faith,  Ixi,  6,  7)  the  Solomonic  Psalm,  Lxxii,  describes  the 
ideal  passage  of  the  Davidic  spirit  from  father  to  son  (cf.  Ixxii,  6,  7  with 
2  Sam.  xxiii,  3,  4).  In  Book  III,  which  is  made  up  from  the  works  of 
other  psalmists,  with  only  one  "  prayer  of  David  "  (Ixxxvi),  and  which 
moves  in  part  under  the  shadow  of  invasion  and  captivity,  the  last 
piece  in  the  book,  a  "  Maschil  of  Ethan  the  Ezrahite,"  repeats  in  glow- 
ing terms  the  promise  and  perpetuity  of  the  Davidic  throne  (Ixxxix; 
cf.  especially  vss.  3,  4,  19-23),  —  a  fitting  culmination  to  a  book 
gathered  out  of  the  middle  ages  of  the  Hebrew  monarchy.    Book  IV, 

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a  purely  liturgical  collection,  contains  two  Davidic  psalms,  both  in  the 
key  of  humble  devotion.  Book  V,  also  liturgical,  and  mostly  in  the  key 
of  praise,  attributes  no  fewer  than  fifteen  psalms  to  David ;  the  most 
notable  of  which,  Psa.  ex,  reads  like  a  supplement  to  Psa.  ii,  but  gives 
the  Messianic  king  a  new  office,  that  of  eternal  priesthood,  "  after  the 
order  of  Melchizedek,"  —  a  remarkable  recognition  of  the  undying 
Davidic  sovereignty  at  a  time  when  the  whole  government  was  in  the 
hands  not  of  a  king  but  of  a  priesthood.  Thus  in  all  periods  of  psalmody 
the  latent  Messianism  of  Israel  is  felt  and  reflected  in  song. 

Of  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  Psalms  making  up  the  five 
books,  fifty- five  are  in  the  superscription  designated  as  ""  For 
^^   „    .    ,    the  chief  musician,"  or  leader  of  the  choir,  all  but 

The  Musical  '  ' 

and  Literar,y  eleven  of  these  being  in  the  first  and  second  books 
Disposal  vvhere  the  Davidic  Psalms  predominate.  All  of 
these  eleven  designations  are  appended  to  Psalms  attributed 
either  to  David  or  to  the  older  psalm  writers  Asaph  and  the 
sons  of  Korah,  the  former  named  of  whom  is  mentioned  in 
Chronicles  as  a  contemporary  of  David  (i  Chron.  xv,  19). 
This  would  seem  to  indicate  that  at  a  time  when  the  choral 
service  of  the  Temple  was  fully  organized  these  Psalms  were 
brought  in  from  ancient  collections  or  sources,  and  perhaps 
adapted,  to  serve  as  classical  material  among  later  pieces 
whose  choral  or  liturgical  use  was  taken  for  granted.  It  was 
as  when  Handel  took  Isaian  prophecies  which  before  had 
been  read  or  chanted  —  "And  the  glory  of  the  Lord"  or 
"  He  shall  feed  his  flock  "  — and  set  them  to  the  immortal 
choral  music  of  "  The  Messiah."  How  these  poems  had  been 
rendered  before  this  disposal  of  them  does  not  appear.  Set 
to  music  they  doubtless  were,  being  so  many  of  them 
Davidic,  but  in  a  more  primitive  way  ;  and  many  of  them 
may  have  been  current  in  private  use  as  closet  poems  or 
prayers. 

Among  the  older  Psalms  designated  "  for  the  chief  musi- 
cian "  are  a  number  of  notes  and  directions,  musical  or  liter- 
ary, some  of  them  already  so  archaic  at  the  time  of  the  final 
compilation  that  their  meaning  could  only  be  guessed  at. 

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They  appear  in  our  English  versions  in  untranslated  form. 
It  would  serve  no  purpose  to  dwell  upon  them  here,  further 
than  to  mention  in  a  note  one  or  two  points  of  special  musi- 
cal interest.  All  the  notes  of  this  sort  are  prefixed  to  Psalms 
ascribed  to  David,  Asaph,  or  the  sons  of  Korah,  —  a  fact 
which  shows  how  inseparable  from  the  first  were  words  and 
music  (and,  indeed,  music  of  a  popular  sort)  in  this  heritage 
from  the  royal  "  sweet  Psalmist  of  Israel  "  (2  Sam.  xxiii,  i). 

Note.  The  Musical  Disposal.  One  Psalm  (xlvi)  has  the  direction 
"  set  to  Alamoth,"  that  is,  to  women's  voices  (cf.  i  Chron.  xv,  20) ;  two 
(vi,  xii),  "  set  to  the  Sheminith,"  or  octave,  that  is,  to  men's  voices  (cf. 
I  Chron.  xv,  21);  seven  (iv,  vi,  liv,  Iv,  Ixi,  Ixvii,  Ixxvi,  all  but  two 
Davidic),  "  on  stringed  instruments "  (Heb.  neginotli) ;  and  one  (v), 
"  with  the  Nehiloth,"  conjectured  to  be  wind  instruments.  These 
directions,  though  early,  are  technical. 

A  further  fact  of  interest,  which  seems  to  be  illustrated  by  David's 
elegy  over  Saul  and  Jonathan,  2  Sam.  i,  18  (see  above,  p.  67),  may  be 
quoted  from  W.  R.  Smith  ("  The  Old  Testament  in  the  Jewish  Church," 
p.  190):  "A  curious  and  interesting  feature  in  the  musical  titles,"  he 
remarks,  "  in  the  earlier  half  of  the  Psalter  is  that  many  of  them  indicate 
the  tune  to  which  the  Psalm  was  set,  by  quoting  phrases  like  Aijeleth 
hash-shahar  (xxii),  or  Jonath  elem  rechokim  ^  (Ivi),  which  are  evidently 
the  names  of  familiar  songs.  Of  the  song  which  gave  the  title  Al-taschith, 
'  Destroy  not '  (Ivii,  Iviii,  lix,  Ixxv),  a  trace  is  still  preserved  in  Isa.  Ixv,  8. 
'  When  the  new  wine  is  found  in  the  cluster,'  says  the  prophet,  men  say, 
'  Destroy  it  not,  for  a  blessing  is  in  it.'  These  words  in  the  Hebrew  have 
a  distinct  lyric  rhythm.  They  are  the  first  line  of  one  of  the  vintage  songs 
so  often  alluded  to  in  Scripture.  And  so  we  learn  that  the  early  religious 
melody  of  Israel  had  a  popular  origin,  and  was  closely  connected  with 
the  old  joyous  life  of  the  nation.  In  the  time  when  the  last  books  of  the 
Psalter  were  composed,  the  Temple  music  had  passed  into  another 
phase,  and  had  differentiated  itself  from  the  melodies  of  the  people." 

The  literary  disposal,  especially  of  individual  Psalms,  is 
somewhat  indefinite  by  our  modern  standards,  owing  to  the 
looser  observance  of  the  lyric  theme.    The  "  single  thought, 

1  That  is,  "  Hind  of  the  Dawn,"  "  Dove  of  the  Distant  Terebinths," 
evidently  well-known  secular  melodies. 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

feeling,  or  situation "  desiderated  in  Professor  Palgrave's 
standard  ^  overflows  its  bounds  and  covers  a  larger  devotional 
mood.  Such  terms  as  "a  song,"  "a  prayer,"  "a  praise," 
are  clear  enough  but  not  at  all  specific  ;  untranslated  terms 
like  maschil,  michtam,  shiggaion,^  are  less  reducible  to  sin- 
gleness of  idea.  Two  of  the  Psalms,  one  (xlix)  by  the  sons 
of  Korah,  the  other  (Ixxviii)  by  Asaph,  are  made  more  defi- 
nitely didactic  by  being  put  in  the  masJial"^  style  (cf.  xlix,  4  ; 
Ixxviii,  2).  One  Psalm  (cxxxvi),  with  its  constant  refrain,  is 
obviously  an  antiphonal  anthem.  Otherwise  the  internal 
sentiment  of  the  Psalms,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  Hallelujah 
groups  toward  the  end,  must  be  left  to  speak  for  itself. 

The  Hebrews'  idea  of  complete  and  finished  verse  form, 
to  which  perhaps  their  conception  of  a  rounded  thought 
structure  corresponded,  seems  to  our  modern  taste  strangely 
arbitrary  and  artificial.  It  is  founded  on  their  alphabet  of 
twenty-two  letters,  and  results  in  acrostic  poems,  "  in  which 
the  initial  letters  of  successive  half  verses,  verses,  or  larger 
stanzas  make  up  the  alphabet."  ^  In  our  English  versions 
this  structure  does  not  appear  except  in  Psalm  cxix,  which 
not  unlikely  was  regarded,  in  its  time  of  matured  legalism, 
as  the  supreme  masterpiece  of  this  kind  of  composition.  In 
the  original  text,  however,  no  fewer  than  thirteen  such  poems 
are  found,  eight  of  them  being  Psalms,  ranging  from  the 
Davidic  type  to  the  late  Hallel  or  Hallelujah.^  One  seems 
to  detect  in  these  a  certain  conventionalism  of  effect,  though 
not  so  marked  as  materially  to  flatten  the  devotional  or 
artistic  note. 

1  See  above,  p.  434. 

2  Maschil,  by  etymology,  seems  to  mean  "  [a  psalm  of]  instruction  "  (well 
borne  out  in  Ixxviii) ;  michtam  (six  times  occurring)  and  shiggaion  (Psa.  vii 
in  singular,  Ilab.  iii,  i  in  plural,  as  designating  a  class  or  setting)  are  of 
uncertain  meaning. 

8  For  the  ntashal  in  native  literary  forms,  see  above,  pp.  68,  69. 

*  W.  R.  Smith,  Old  Testament  in  the  Jewish  Church,  p.  182.   ' 

*  Psa.  ix-x,  XXV,  xxxiv,  xxxvii,  cxi,  cxii,  cxix,  cxlv. 

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TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

The  most  charming  and,  so  to  say,  domestic  section  of  the 
whole  Psalter,  perhaps,  occurs  in  Book  V,  just  after  the  huge 
and  formal  bulk  of  Psalm  cxix.  It  is  the  group  of  poems, 
cxx  to  cxxxiv,"  called  Songs  of  Degrees  in  the  King  James 
version,  of  Ascents  in  the  Revised, — lit.  "songs  of  the 
steps."  What  specific  employment  or  occasion  they  connote 
is  a  matter  of  varied  conjecture ;  the  prevailing  opinion 
holds  them  to  be  songs  chanted  by  pilgrims  on  their  way 
up  to  Jerusalem  at  the  numerous  feast  times  which  were 
observed  in  the  matured  Judaism  (cf .  Psa.  cxxii),  —  a  cus- 
tom which  had  a  parallel  in  the  reading  of  the  little  classics, 
or  Megilloth,  on  these  festival  occasions.^  One  likes  to 
think  so.  One  is  gratified  to  find  this  whole  Book  V,  the 
latest  compiled,  of  which  these  songs  are  a  characteristic 
feature,  so  well  rounding  out  the  long  utterance  of  the  nation's 
lyric  soul  by  gathering  materials  new  and  old  to  meet  the 
spiritual  needs  of  a  time  of  settledness  and  abiding,  when  law 
and  liturgy  and  domestic  sentiment  were  ripened  into  peace 
and  harmony.  Of  this  state  of  things  these  Songs  of  Ascents, 
sandwiched  between  the  austere  cultus  and  the  exuberant 
Hallel  elements,  are  a  fitting  symbol.  Their  origin  is  less 
clear.  They  were  evidently  introduced  into  the  book  as  a 
group,  from  an  earlier  source.  Five  of  them,  indeed,  are  by 
title  ascribed  to  David  and  Solomon.  My  opinion  is  that  their 
first  compilation  (and,  in  part,  composition)  fits  best  with  the 
later  years  of  King  Hezekiah,  whose  reign  had  weathered  the 
suspense  and  pang  of  the  Assyrian  invasion,  and  who  after 
his  wonderful  recovery  from  a  mortal  illness  was  minded  to 
devote  himself  to  the  choral  service  of  the  Temple  (cf.  2 
Kings  XX,  5,  8  ;  Isa.  xxxviii,  19,  20) .^  It  would  take  little 
if  any  modification  to  fit  the  devout  sentiments  of  the  earlier 
era  to  the  later,  for  the  psalm  elements  of  both  are  deeper 
than  specific  events. 

1  See  below,  pp.  482  f. 

^  Connect  this  with  what  is  said  above,  pp.  198-201. 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 
II 

Proverbs :  Garnered  Counsel  from  the  Wise.  Like  the 
Book  of  Psalms,  the  Book  of  Proverbs  is  a  collection  of  lit- 
erary utterances  signalized  by  a  royal  name  and  yet  confess- 
edly the  work  of  many  authors,  named  or  nameless.  The 
name  Solomon  prefixed  both  to  the  whole  book  (Prov.  i,  i) 
and  to  the  most  characteristic  section  of  it  (x,  i)  is  rather 
a  class  term  than  one  of  authorship  ;  the  book's  distinctive 
contents  being  mashals  of  a  specific  kind  which  the  phrase 
"  of  Solomon,"  or,  as  we  should  say,  Solomonic,  defines. 

Note.  Much  of  the  preliminary  discussion  pertaining  to  the  Book 
of  Proverbs  has  already  been  given  in  Chapters  I  and  II,  above.  The 
fnashal^  its  unit  of  expression,  is  explained  on  pages  68-70 ;  Solomon's 
tradition^  connection  with  song  and  mashal  in  the  Scripture  books 
ascribed  to  him,  on  page  85  ;  and  the  broader  subject  of  the  Wisdom 
Strain  and  the  Sages,  on  pages  92-96.  The  supplementary  section  of 
Hezekian  proverbs  (Prov.  xxv-xxix),  with  remarks  on  the  vogue  of 
Wisdom  literature  in  the  time  of  Hezekiah  and  Isaiah,  is  treated  on 
pages  202-204.    • 

No  book  of  Scripture  seems  to  reveal  more  clearly  than 
does  this  Book  of  Proverbs  the  steps  and  stages  of  its  liter- 
ary progress  ;  not  in  time,  indeed,  for  there  are  few  if  any 
indications  when  particular  proverbs  or  groups  of  proverbs 
became  current,  but  in  the  gradual  shaping  and  refining  of 
its  chosen  vehicle  of  expression,  the  mashal.  Its  literary 
art  is  more  self-conscious  than  that  of  other  books,  more 
mindful  not  only  of  what  is  .said  but  of  how  it  is  said,  in 
word  and  phrase.  The  thought-texture  of  the  book,  although 
its  maxims  are  so  detached  and  miscellaneous,  is  eminently 
homogeneous  both  with  itself  and  with  the  rest  of  Scrip- 
ture ;  it  is  in  the  workmanship  that  one  traces  a  reflection 
of  different  periods  and  perhaps  different  schools  or  guilds 
of  proverb  literature. 

"  The  last  thing  that  we  find  in  making  a  book,"  says 
Pascal,  "is  to  know  what  we  must  put  first."    The  remark 

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TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

applies  aptly  to  the  process  apparent  in  the  Book  of  Proverbs 
by  which  a  multitude  of  apothegms,  of  different  ages  and 
The  Shaping  schools,  were  fuscd  into  the  unity  and  organism  of 
of  a  Book  of    a  book.    The  first  section,  comprising  chapters  i 

^^  °™  to  ix,  was  evidently  the  latest  (unless  we  except 
the  last  two  chapters)  to  be  added  to  the  collection  ;  and 
this  was  clearly  not  compiled  from  earlier  sources  but  com- 
posed as  a  kind  of  introduction  to  and  commendation  of  the 
whole.  It  is  in  this  section,  accordingly,  that  we  look  for 
the  focal  idea  of  the  book,  the  ruling  truth  to  which  all  its 
detached  maxims  have  a  more  or  less  intimate  relation. 

That  focal  idea  we  find  in  the  Hebrew  conception  of  Wis- 
dom, which,  as  already  remarked,^  was  to  the  Hebrew  mind 
what  philosophy  was  to  the  Greeks  and  is  to  us.  If,  how- 
ever, the  name  is  applicable  to  it  at  all,  it  is  to  be  regarded 
as  philosophy  of  a  peculiar  kind,  as  a  view  of  life  which 
connotes  certitude  rather  than  speculation,  which  does  not 
deduce  truth  but  asserts  it,  and  whose  nature  may  be  roughly 
symbolized  in  its  chosen  term,  "Wisdom,"  the  thing  itself, 
as  distinguished  from  "  Philosophy,"  the  love  of  the  thing. 
It  deals  accordingly  with  such  values  of  life  as  will  bear  such 
absolute  statement,  practical  elements  of  character  and  con- 
duct which  require  rather  to  be  enforced  or  enlivened  than 
to  be  discovered.  It  is  the  truth  fitted  to  the  man  who  is 
sincere,  teachable,  right-minded  ;  it  is  in  the  most  wholesome 
sense  the  gospel  of  prudence,  sagacity,  success. 

To  a  modern  mind  the  outstanding  feature  of  this  Wisdom 
is  the  entire  harmony  it  assumes  between  the  secular  and 
the  religious,  the  intellectual  and  the  moral.  It  is  in  unison 
with  the  great  Hebrew  ideal  of  right  living.  To  be  wise  is 
to  be  righteous  ;  to  be  wicked  is  to  be  a  fool.^    Or  to  put  it 

1  See  above,  p.  94,  and  cf.  p.  37.  For  an  informal  discussion  of  Wisdom 
I  may  perhaps  refer  the  reader  to  my  book  on  "  The  Hebrew  Literature 
of  Wisdom  in  the  Light  of  To-Day, "  chaps,  i,  iii. 

-  Cf.  above,  p.  95. 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

in  the  theme  proposition  of  the  book,  as  propounded  just 
after  the  preface  (i,  7),  which  for  proper  emphasis  may  be 
expressed  : 

The  fear  of  Jehovah  is  the  beginning  of  knowledge ; 
They  are  fools  who  despise  wisdom  and  instruction. 

This  initial  proposition,  setting  forth  the  theme  in  contrast, 
is  worth  a  moment's  further  notice,  as  the  same  assertion  is 
repeated  in  sHghtly  varied  wording  both  in  Proverbs  and  in 
other  Wisdom  books,  and,  indeed,  may  be  regarded  as  the 
fundamental  principle,  the  Newtonian  law  —  so  to  speak  — 
of  the  Wisdom  cult.    At  ix,  10,  its  wording  is 

The  fear  of  Jehovah  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom ; 
And  the  knowledge  of  the  Holy  One  is  understanding. 

So  one  might  go  on  to  cite  Prov.  xv,  33  (original  Solo- 
monic), Psa.  cxi,  10  (late  liturgical),  reaching  its  classical 
expression  in  Job  xxviii,  28  : 

Behold,  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  that  is  wisdom ; 
And  to  depart  from  evil  is  understanding, 

which  merely  states  the  principle  that  Job  vindicated  with 
his  life  (cf.  Job  i,  i).  Even  Ecclesiastes,  in  his  later  ven- 
tilation of  Wisdom,  makes  the  sum  of  manhood  fearing 
God  and  keeping  His  commandments  (Eccl.  xii,  13).  Jesus 
Sirach,  the  apocryphal  sage,  constantly  emphasizes  it.  With 
this  fundamental  assertion  goes  the  constant  implication 
that  wisdom,  or  righteousness,  is  in  the  way  to  salvation 
and  wickedness,  or  folly,  in  the  way  to  ruin  (cf.  xi,  31),  — an 
implication  which  plays  a  strong  part  in  the  controversies 
of  the  Book  of  Job.  All  this  shows  wisdom  not  as  a  divisive 
force  but  coordinate  and  cooperative.  It  is  at  one  with  the 
other  lines  of  religion  and  culture.  Thus  we  see  the  sage, 
the  prophet,  and  the  priest,  fraternal  work  fellows  in  the  same 
conception  of  life,  viewing  it  merely  from  slightly  different 
angles  and  fitting  it  to  their  respective  circles. 

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TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

The  Hebrew  mind  is  not  abstract  and  logical  but  concrete 
and  visualizing.  Figurative  speech,  imagery,  is  its  native  ele- 
How  Wisdom  ment.  Hence  in  chapters  ii  to  vi  Wisdom  is  set 
IS  Set  Forth  fQj-th  not  in  an  ordered  system  but  under  the 
simple  concept  of  a  priceless  treasure,  which  is  counted  over, 
as  it  were,  and  in  many  phases  urged  upon  the  young  man, 
the  venerable  sage  speaking  as  a  father.  Such,  so  to  speak, 
is  the  typical  wisdom  pose.  This  to  begin  with  (cf.  i.  8,  9). 
But  soon  a  bolder  figure  takes  form  and  growth  in  the 
author's  mind,  a  magnificent  personification,  or  allegory, 
the  sublimest  in  Scripture,  in  which  Wisdom  —  Our  Lady 
Wisdom  let  us  call  her  —  is  heard  to  speak  for  herself.  First 
introduced  in  a  somewhat  austere  exhortation  (i,  20-33), 
at  her  next  entrance  she  puts  on  an  ineffable  dignity  and 
loveliness  (viii),  as  a  kind- of  foil  to  her  loathly  rival  the 
"  foolish  woman,"  the  too  literal  temptress  of  heedless  young 
manhood  (cf.  vii,  6-27).  It  is  the  Scripture  parallel  to  the 
famous  Choice  of  Hercules  described  in  Greek  mythology. 
The  passage  in  which  Our  Lady  Wisdom  describes  her 
origin  and  station  (viii,  22-31),  almost  as  if  she  were  divine, 
is  the  nearest  Old  Testament  parallel  to  the  Logos  idea 
of  the  New  Testament  (cf.  John  i,  1-14),  but  of  course  far 
removed  from  it. 

When  He  appointed  the  foundations  of  the  earth, 

Then  I  was  by  Him,  as  a  nursling; 

And  I  was  daily  all  delight, 

Playing  always  before  Him, 

Playing  in  His  habitable  earth, 

And  my  delights  are  with  the  sons  of  men.'^ 

Once  more  she  appears,  in  her  seven-pillared  house  (ix,  i-i  2), 
not  in  contrast  but  in  noble  rivalry  to  the  false  woman  Folly 
(vss.  13-18),  disdaining  not,  for  purity's  and  virtue's  sake, 
to  imitate  the  arts  and  allurements  so  often  and  foully 
abused. 

1  I  use  here  the  translation  of  the  Jewish  version. 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LrPERATURE 

So,  by  portraying  this  majestic  womanly  figure,  the  author, 
representing  the  Wisdom  traits  as  it  were  in  Hving  poise  and 
action,  creates  and  maintains  the  grand  unity  of  the  Book  of 
Proverbs,  It  is  one  of  the  most  elaborate  pieces  of  literary 
skill  and  art  in  the  Old  Testament. 

Nor  is  this  skill  and  art  less  apparent  in  the  rest  of  the 
book.  Let  us  note  how  this  is.  The  preface  to  the  whole 
Art  and  Aim  Collection  (i,  2-6),  first  giving  a  kind  of  analysis 
of  the  of  the  book's  object  and  audience,  ends  with  a 

roverb  similar  analysis  of  the  mashal,  its  unit  of  word- 

ing and  phrase  (vs.  6),  naming  thereby  what  resolves  into 
a  double  object  of  this  literary  form  : 

To  understand  a  proverb,  and  a  figure, 
Words  of  the  wise,  and  their  dark  sayings. 

In  this  couplet  we  note  four  terms,  two  of  them  general  and 
two  specific.  The  general  terms,  the  first  in  each  line,  desig- 
nate the  vehicle  of  expression  as  regards  its  form  (mashal, 
translatable  "proverb,"  as  here,  or  "parable"^)  and  as  re- 
gards its  practitioners  ("words  of  the  wise,"  or  sages).  The 
specific  terms  "figure"  and  "dark  sayings"  are  in  the 
margin  rendered  "interpretation"  and  "riddles,"  and  seem 
to  convey  the  idea  that  the  double  object  of  the  mashal  is, 
so  to  speak,  to  shed  both  light  and  darkness  ;  that  is,  to  make 
things  clear  enough  to  satisfy  first  thought  and  deep  or 
intricate  enough  to  rouse  curious  or  labored  thinking.  There 
is  a  very  practical  literary  principle  here.  It  is  the  principle 
that  valuable  things  are  worth  labor  according  to  their  value, 
and  that  what  is  cheaply  obtained  is  cheaply  held.  Hence 
into  the  elucidating  thing  which  contains  the  writer's  idea 
it  is  desirable  to  inject  an  enigma  element  which  stimulates 
the  reader's  thinking,  thus  making  him  do  his  proportionate 
share  in  appreciating  and  appropriating  the  idea.  This 
principle  it  is  that  underlies  the  mashal,  or  proverb.    By  its 

1  See  above,  p.  68,  for  the  meaning  of  the  mashal. 

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TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

clear  discrimination  or  luminous  imagery  it  conveys  a 
thought ;  by  its  epigram  or  half-truth  or  paradox  or  odd 
association  of  ideas  it  sets  the  reader  thinking  and  solving, 
stimulates  his  active  mental  powers,  and  gives  him  some- 
thing to  ponder  and  remember. 

That  this  art  and  aim  of  expression  has  not  only  an  intel- 
lectual but  a  spiritual  value  is  seen  in  the  use  which  our 
Lord  in  his  teaching  made  of  the  parable,  which  is  merely 
a  developed  phase  of  the  mashal.  He  employed  this  method 
deliberately,  as  he  said,  in  order  that  his  hearers  might  "see 
and  yet  not  see  "  (cf.  Matt,  xiii,  10-13),  arid  his  appeal  was 
to  him  "that  hath  ears  to  hear."  It  was  like  the  Second 
Isaiah's  call  to  "  bring  forth  the  blind  people  that  have  eyes, 
and  the  deaf  that  have  ears"  (Isa.  xliii,  8).  Our  Lord's 
method  was  to  state  some  analogical  truth  which  had  all  the 
clearness  of  a  familiar  scene  or  story  and  yet  all  the  spiritual 
depth  of  a  "  dark  saying,"  —  to  which,  therefore,  the  hearer 
must  make  spiritual  adjustment,  like  resolving  an  enigma, 
before  he  could  understand  it.  The  art  and  aim  of  the 
Solomonic  proverb  shows  all  this  in  literary  type  and  germ 
as  applied  to  the  ordinary  management  of  life.^ 

Although  the  opening  section,  chapters  i  to  ix,  gives  to 
the  miscellaneous  mass  of  proverbs  the  unity  of  the  large 
The  Succes-  Wisdom  idea,  the  Book  of  Proverbs  remains,  after 
sive  Deposits  ^\\^  rather  an  aggregation  than  an  organized  book. 
It  is  made  up  of  successive  deposits,  which  contain  no  signs 
of  chronological  date  or  sequence,  but  seem  rather  to  have 
been  gathered  from  different  guilds  or  sages,  and  perhaps 
assembled  at  one  editing.  The  proverbs  are  Solomonic  in 
the  same  sense  that  the  Psalms  are  Davidic,  Solomon's 
judicial  mood  of  sagacity  and  wise  observation  of  life  pre- 
vailing here  as  did  David's  lyric  mood  of  prayer  and  praise 
in  the  Book   of    Psalms.     It  is  not  in   the  nature  of  the 

1  For  the  art  and  purpose  of  Jesus'  teaching  in  parables,  see  below, 
pp.  548  ff. 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

subject  matter  to  take  the  articulation,  the  coordination, 
the  movement  of  a  system  or  treatise.  Its  tone  is  what 
one  would  expect  to  hear  from  an  aged  and  venerable  sage 
who  could  recall  his  honored  days,  — 

When  1  went  forth  to  the  gate  unto  the  city, 
When  I  prepared  my  seat  in  the  broad  place, 
The  young  men  saw  me  and  hid  themselves. 
And  the  aged  rose  up  and  stood.^ 

It  is  the  didactic  tone  of  a  wisdom  that  does  not  confine 
itself  to  national  boundaries  or  sentiments  ;  it  is  not  in  the 
idiom  of  Mosaic  law  or  sanctuar)'  chant  or  prophetic  vision, 
and  yet  with  all  of  them  it  is  in  perfect  tune  and  accord, 
as  it  bears  its  share  in  the  varied  expression  of  the  Hebrew 
mind. 

Note.    The  following  is  a  list  of  the  successive  deposits  of  proverbs, 
as  indicated  in  the  word*  of  the  book. 
Deposit  I  (Chapters  i-ix) : 

"  The  proverbs  of  Solomon  the  son  of  David,  King  of  Israel." 

[General  title  to  the  whole  book,  followed  by  preface,  vss.  2-6,  and 
by  a  nucleus  mashal,  vs.  7.] 
Deposit  II  (Chapters  x-xxii,  16): 

"  The  proverbs  of  Solomon." 
Deposit  III  (Chapters  xxii,  17-xxiv,  22): 

"  Incline  thine  ear,  and  hear  the  words  of  the  wise. 
And  apply  thy  heart  unto  my  knowledge." 

[Technical  formula  of  Wisdom  utterance,  being  the  opening  couplet 
of  a  preface,  vss.  17-21.] 
Deposit  IV  (Chapter  xxiv,  23-34): 

"These  also  are  sayings  of  the  wise." 
Deposit  V  (Chapters  x.xv-xxix): 

"  These  also  are  proverbs  of  Solomon,  which  the  men  of  Hezekiah 
King  of  Judah  copied  out." 
Deposit  VI  (Chapter  xxx): 

"  The  words  of  Agur  the  son  of  Jakeh  :  the  omcle." 
Deposit  VII  (Chapter  x.xxi) : 

"  The  words  of  King  Lemuel :  the  oracle  which  his  mother  taught 
him." 

1  Job  xxix.  7,  8. 

[454] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

What  progress  there  is  in  the  substance  of  the  Book  of 

Proverbs  is  to  be  traced  rather  in  its  manner  than  in  its 

^^   ,,     matter.   The  items  of  the  matter  are  hke  so  many 

How  the  Ma-  ^ 

shai  Worked  casual   remarks   or   obiter  dicta,  —  each   proverb 

Itself  Free  ^ging  complete  in  itself,  deriving  no  support  or 
suggestion  from  the  one  before,  making  no  preparation  for 
the  one  succeeding.  Nor  do  the  supposedly  later  compila- 
tions reveal  an  appreciable  advance  in  reflection  or  spiritual 
discovery.  So  far  as  the  movement  of  subject  matter  is 
concerned  the  book  may  be  regarded  as  a  body  of  static 
Wisdom,  every  utterance  of  it  a  truth  to  itself.  In  the 
manner,  however,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  structure  and  style 
of  the  individual  proverb,  there  is  traceable  a  movement,  a 
development,  which  may  be  briefly  described  as  the  mashal 
working  itself  free. 

What  is  meant  by  this  may  be  noted  by  any  reader  who  fol- 
lows the  text  with  due  attention  to  style,  beginning  of  course 
at  chapter  x,  where  the  older  Solomonic  proverbs  begin. 
As  a  preliminary,  however,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the 
unit  of  expression  adopted  by  the  Solomonic  sages  was  the 
parallelistic  couplet,  the  native  art-form  of  Hebrew  poetry  ;  ^ 
which  unit  they  proceeded  to  develop,  according  to  their 
idea  of  making  its  expression  at  once  lucid  and  cryptic,^ 
into  a  couplet  containing  the  maximum  of  suggestion,  con- 
densation, and  epigrammatic  point.  The  result,  as  com- 
pared with  the  ordinary  Hebrew  parallelism,  was  somewhat 
analogous  to  the  so-called  heroic  couplet  of  Pope  and 
Dryden  as  compared  with  the  more  steady  flow  of  descrip- 
tive or  dramatic  blank  verse.  So  by  their  skillful  cultivation 
the  mashal  couplet  became  the  artistic  vehicle  of  the  crisp, 
pointed,  thought-provoking  pronouncement  desired  in  the 
conversion  of  a  run-wild  popular  saying  into  a  refined  literary 
form.  They  had  sought  their  material  in  the  homely 
thought  of  the  common  people,  such  as  expresses  itself  in 

^  See  above,  p.  64.  •^  Cf.  above,  p.  452. 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

maxims,  and  their  treatment  of  these  maxims  was  like 
turning  a  rustic  remark  into  verse,  with  the  added  endeavor 
to  make  the  verse  itself  an  adage. 

Note.  One  sees  the  same  tendency  in  the  growth  of  popular  sayings 
from  prose  expression  to  rhyme,  rhyme  being  in  modern  literary  sense 
much  like  the  parallelism  in  the  Hebrew.  There  is,  for  instance,  a 
Spanish  proverb,  "  Plow  deep  and  you  will  have  plenty  of  corn," 
which  reappears  in  an   English  rhyme  as 

Plow  deep  while  sluggards  sleep. 

And  you  will  have  corn  to  sell  and  keep. 

In  a  similar  way  going  back  to  the  oldest  proverb  quoted  in  the  Bible, 
"Out  of  the  wicked  cometh  forth  wickedness"  (i  Sam.  xxiv,  13),  one 
finds  in  the  later  Solomonic  mashal  a  similar  sentiment  in  couplet 
form,  Prov.  xxi,  10, 

The  soul  of  the  wicked  desireth  evil ; 
His  neighbor  findeth  no  favor  in  his  eyes. 

So  when  the  sages  set  out  to  teach  the  people  useful  moral  lessons,  in- 
stead of  choosing  the  vehicle  of  heavy  dissertation  they  emploj'ed  the 
poetic  couplet,  realizing  perhaps,  as  George  Herbert  has  hinted  in  more 
modern  days,  that 

A  verse  may  find  him  who  a  sermon  flies, 

And  turn  delight  into  a  sacrifice. 

With  this  refinement  of  the  form  goes  refinement  of  the 
thought.  As  soon  as  it  steps  beyond  the  homely  folk  con- 
sciousness it  becomes  more  subtile,  pliant,  colorful,  adapt- 
able, in  a  word,  from  a  rather  stiff  workmanlike  mold  in 
which  the  art,  which  is  first  crude  and  tentative,  becomes 
severe  and  self-conscious,  it  gradually  works  itself  free  from 
trammels  of  form  to  the  point  where  the  verbal  and  phrasal 
art  is  swallowed  up  in  the  swing  and  flow  of  thought.  Such, 
in  a  remarkable  degree,  was  the  literary  progress  traceable 
in  the  Book  of  Proverbs. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  concise,  single-couplet  mashal, 
while  useful  for  some  phases  of  truth,  is  for  others  too 
limited.  What  it  gains  in  point  it  loses  in  range  and  spon- 
taneous flow.     Accordingly,  as  it  tackles  broader  or  more 

[456] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

complex  thinking  it  tends  to  escape  its  couplet  tether  and 
move  more  fully  and  freely,  —  as  -the  French  express  it, 
from  the  style  coupe  to  the  style  soiitemi,  from  the  abrupt 
to  the  sustained.  Such  is  the  tendency  notable  in  the  Book 
of  Proverbs.  It  shows  itself  in  two  ways  :  in  the  phrasing 
and  figuration  of  the  mashal  and  in  its  increased  length 
and  range.  This  of  course  we  are  considering  as  a  mere 
matter  of  style,  but  the  substance  too  is  profoundly  influ- 
enced thereby  ;  and  it  is  interesting  to  trace  how  the  Wis- 
dom message,  as  it  goes  on  to  finer  expression,  seems  to 
take  on  more  persuasiveness  and  affability.  Compare,  for 
instance,  the  literary  feel  of  chapter  x,  presumably  the  old- 
est, with  that  of  chapters  viii  and  ix,  in  which  the  portrayal 
of  Wisdom  culminates,  and  you  can  realize  how  the  mashal 
has  worked  itself  free. 

Note.  Let  us  try  to  indicate  a  little  more  consecutively  how  this 
movement  toward  greater  freedom  manifests  itself  in  the  course  of  the 
book  and  what,  accordingly,  is  the  reciprocal  influence  of  form  and 
substance. 

I.  The  original  Solomonic  deposit,  x  to  xxii,  i6,  is  made  up  entirely 
of  detached  couplet  proverbs.^  This  is  the  mold  according  to  which  the 
mashal  appears,  shaped  and  finished,  in  the  smallest  compass,  a  whole 
subject  being  thus  rounded  off  and  disposed  of  in  two  lines.  In  the 
middle  of  the  section,  however,  one  notices  a  gradual  change  in  the  rela- 
tion of  the  second  line  of  the  parallelism  to  the  first.  Up  to  the  end  of 
the  fifteenth  chapter  there  has  been  a  great  predominance  of  the  anti- 
thetic couplet,  exemplified  in  the  first  proverb,  x,  i, 

A  wise  son  maketh  a  glad  father ; 

Hut  a  foolish  son  is  the  heaviness  of  his  mother. 

In  this  form  of  contrast  are  set  forth  in  a  great  variety  of  ways  the  inflex- 
ible oppositions  of  life  —  righteousness  and  wickedness,  wisdom  and 
folly,  industry  and  sloth,  open-mindedness  and  perversity,  truthfulness 
and  deceit,  discreet  speech  and  silly  prating,  mercy  and  cruelty,  and  the 
like  — as  it  were  the  massive  fundamentals  of  moral  instruction  adapted 
especially  to 'the  young.    We  can  see  herein  the  fitness  of  the  antithetic 

^  Except  xix,  23,  which  runs  to  three  lines. 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

mashal.  An  antithesis  is  a  kind  of  self-closing  circuit ;  it  says  its  say 
and  returns  on  itself,  telling  that  a  certain  contrast  is  so  but  not  why  or 
to  what  extent  it  is  so.  It  is  adapted,  accordingly,  to  aspects  of  truth  that 
do  not.  need  enlargement  or  enrichment  but  only  sharp  distinction. 

From  the  sixteenth  chapter  onward,  however,  we  come  upon  a  like 
predominance  of  the  so-called  synthetic  couplet ;  that  is,  a  couplet  in 
which  the  second  line  repeats  or  expands  the  thought  of  the  first,  as,  for 
instance. 

He  that  is  slow  to  anger  is  better  than  the  mighty ; 
And  he  that  ruleth  his  spirit  than  he  that  taketh  a  city, 

a  virtual  repetition,  or 

The  spirit  of  man  is  the  lamp  of  Jehovah, 
Searching  all  his  innermost  parts, 

wherein  the  second  line  applies  the  metaphor  of  the  first.  This  kind 
of  couplet  is  not  so  blunt  and  uncompromising  as  the  other,  its  circuit 
not  so  self-closed  and  exclusive ;  it  seems  to  leave  its  initial  assertion 
open  to  enlargement  or  modification  or  illustration.  This  is  an  evident 
gain  in  suppleness  and  freedom  of  expression. 

2.  A  statement  that  can  take  one  clause  of  explication  can  take  more. 
The  barriers,  so  to  speak,  are  let  down,  and  whatever  is  needed  to  make 
the  thought  rounded  and  complete  can  be  added,  whether  in  one  line  or 
more.  The  mashal,  while  still  retaining  the  unit  of  parallelism,  may  go 
on  to  as  many  more  couplets  as  seem  necessary.  Accordingly,  as  soon 
as  we  enter  the  next  section  (xxii,  i  7-xxiv,  22,  with  its  appendix,  vss. 
23-34)  the  most  immediate  thing  that  we  notice  is  a  change  and  a  variety 
in  the  length  of  the  mashal.  ■  The  prefatory  passage,  vss.  17-21,  goes 
on  to  five  couplets  (ten  lines),  and  the  next  mashal  is  a  quatrain.  This 
latter  form,  indeed,  is  a  favorite  one  in  this  section,  though  couplets  and 
other  measures  are  interspersed.  One  poem  about  wine-drinking  (xxiii, 
29-35)  extends  to  eighteen  lines.  In  the  appendix  occurs  a  poem  of 
eleven  lines  (xxiv,  30-34)  about  the  sluggard,  with  a  refrain;  which 
latter,  appended  to  a  similar  poem  in  the  introductorj'  section  (vi,  6- 1 1 ), 
suggests  that  the  two  passages  were  originally  stanzas  of  one  poem, 
which  accidentally  became  separated.  All  this  variety  in  the  compass 
of  the  mashal,  coupled  with  the  fact  that  the  abrupt  antithesis  has  almost 
entirely  given  way  to  the  synthetic  couplet,  is  a  telling  indication  of  in- 
creased ease  and  freedom.  A  more  affable  mood,  too,  is  shown  in  the 
fact  that  this  section  seems  to  be  the  first  to  introduce  the  personal  call 
for  attention  which  becomes  the  hallmark  of  wisdom  utterance  (xxii,  1 7  ; 
cf.  i,  8;   Psa.  xlix,  i  ;  Ixxviii,  i  ;    Isa.  xxviii,  23). 

•         [458] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

3.  With  the  Hezekian  compilation,  chapters  xxv  to  xxix,  which  pro- 
fesses to  be  Solomonic,  return  is  made  for  the  most  part  to  the  couplet 
mashal,  but  with  a  difference  showing  another  stage  of  the  art.  There 
is  a  greatly  increased  proportion  of  simile  mashals ;  for  example, 

As  cold  waters  to  a  thirsty  soul, 

So  is  good  news  from  a  far  country. 

Most  of  the  similes  in  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  in  fact,  come  in  this  section. 
The  influence  of  this  upon  the  thought  is  not  difficult  to  estimate.  The 
figurative  expression  makes  a  finer  demand  on  the  reader's  apprecia- 
tion and  acumen,  adding  to  the  worth  of  the  conception  the  zest  of 
imagery.  An  effective  simile  is  a  kind  of  surprise.  It  does  not  deal 
in  literal  resemblance ;  it  gives  rather  some  one  point  in  which  things 
almost  wholly  different  are  wonderfully  alike.  The  use  of  such  figured 
language  is  thus  a  tacit  bid  for  keenness  of  thinking,  a  tribute  to  the 
reader's  fineness  and  justness  of  culture.  Accordingly  one  may  note 
that  the  proverbs  of  this  Hezekian  compilation  go  farther  afield  for 
their  subject  matter,  bringing  aspects  of  wisdom  that  lie  out  of  the  com- 
mon range.  Nor  is  this  confined  to  the  couplet  mashal.  There  are  also 
larger  groups ;  it  is  in  this  section  too  that  the  beautiful  litde  ten-line 
poem  about  husbandry  is  to  be  found  (xxvii,  23-27).  Thus  the  greater 
freedom  of  this  section  is  largely  aesthetic,  an  increased  sense  of  beauty. 

4.  With  the  words  of  Agur  the  son  of  Jakeh  (xxx),  who  was  perhaps 
a  foreigner,  the  workmanship  becomes  somewhat  artificial  and  labored ; 
nor  does  the  thought  as  a  whole  reach  so  high  a  level  of  taste  and  value. 
A  new  form  of  proverb  appears  here,  the  so-called  numerical  mashal, 
giving  numbered  lists  of  things  that  have  traits  in  common  ;  for  example, 
xxx,  29-3 1  : 

There  are  three  things  which  are  stately  in  their  march, 

Yea,  four  which  are  stately  in  going : 

The  lion,  which  is  mightiest  among  beasts, 

And  turneth  not  away  for  any  ; 

The  greyhound  ;  the  he-goat  also  ; 

And  the  king  against  whom  there  is  no  rising  up. 

Even  in  his  famous  prayer,  vss.  7-9,  Agur  enumerates  the  things  he 
desires  of  God.  There  is  only  one  other  place  in  Scripture  where  the 
numerical  proverb  is  used,  and  that  is  the  passage,  vi,  16-19,  '"  the 
introductory  section,  where  are  named  "  six  things  which  Jehovah  hateth, 
yea,  seven  which  are  an  abomination  unto  Him."  And  this  is  in  a  de- 
cidedly higher  tone,  as  it  were  more  Hebrew,  than  are  Agur's  numericals. 
If  he  has  added  to  the  freedom  of  the  mashal,  it  is  a  kind  of  exotic 
freedom,  not  of  the  full  tide. 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

5.  More  than  two  thirds  of  the  words  of  King  Lemuel.  "  the  oracle 
which  his  mother  taught  him  "  (xxxi),  are  taken  up  with  the  alphabetic 
poem  already  mentioned,  twenty-two  couplets  long,  beginning, 

A  worthy  woman  who  can  find  ? 
For  her  price  is  far  above  rubies, 

and  continuing  in  a  lovely  series  of  domestic  traits.  This  concluding 
strain  of  the  Book  of  Proverbs  merits  remark  both  for  the  perfection 
of  its  art  and  for  the  beauty  of  its  substance.  Expressed  in  that  strange 
acrostic  form  which  to  the  Hebrew  mind  represented  the  severest  art  in 
versification  (something  like  our  sonnet  or  stately  ode),  it  is  the  most 
chaste  and  limpid  specimen  of  that  species  of  verse  to  be  found  in 
Scripture,  —  that  perfection  of  art  which  conceals  art.^  As  such  it 
presents  both  in  style  and  in  substance  the  mashal  wrought  to  highest 
sweep  and  freedom. 

It  is  worth  while  to  note,  in  our  feeHng  of  the  increasing 
freedom  and  breadth  as  the  Book  of  Proverbs  goes  on, 
how  fitly  the  end,  leaving  its  summarizing  message  with  the 
woman  and  mother,  answers  to  the  poetic  conception  of  the 
introductory  section.  Standing  thus  at  the  culmination  of 
this  manual  of  homely  and  practical  wisdom,  this  woman 
section  enshrines  a  chivalrous  portrayal  not  unworthy  of  that 
adventurous  personification,  almost  apotheosis,  in  which  the 
Hebrew  realism  of  imagination  reached  its  highest  mark. 
It  is  the  noble  literal  of  which  the  other  is  the  conceptual 
type  and  figure,  giving  for  the  master  of  men  (vss.  2-9) 
and  the  mistress  of  the  household  (10-31)  —  adult  and 
self-controlled  age  —  what  the  other  gives  for  immature 
and  teachable  youth.  Only  one  idealizing  step  beyond  the 
capable  woman,  with  her  household  gift  of  management  and 
tender  sway,  is  our  Lady  Wisdom  in  her  seven-pillared 
mansion,  entering  the  lists  of  alluring  warfare  against  the 
false  Madam  Folly,  —  thus  realizing  something  like  the  idea 
later  expressed  by  Goethe. at  the  close  of  "Faust," 

The  woman-Soul  leadeth  us 
Upward  and  on. 

^  For  a  list  of  acrostic  Psalms  see  above,  p.  446,  footnote  5. 

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TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

May  we  not  regard  this  as  an  interrelation  of  end  and  be- 
ginning in  which  all  the  best  elements  of  the  book  blend 
in  one  beauty  and  fullness  ? 

Like  other  strains  of  literature  —  the  prophetic,  the  legal- 
istic —  the  Wisdom  strain  had  its  curve  of  ascent,  culmina- 

^..  ^  X  r  tion,  and  gradual  subsidence  ;  and  it  is  hard  to 
The  Crest  of  '  " 

the  Wisdom  Say  when  it  reached  its  highest  point  of  vogue 
^^'^^  and  popularity.     This  point  would  of  course  be 

much  earlier  than  when  the  various  deposits  were  assembled 
into  a  Book  of  Proverbs  and  the  introduction  commenda- 
tory was  written.  It  would  come  at  some  time  when  the 
Wisdom  way  of  thinking  was  so  "in  the  air  "  that  it  threat- 
ened to  monopolize  men's  regards,  as  if  no  other  way  of 
thinking  could  be  tolerated.  To  my  mind  this  seems  like- 
liest to  have  been  about  in  the  time  of  Isaiah,  when  the 
men  of  Hezekiah  were  copying  out  the  aftermath  of  Solo- 
monic proverbs  (Prov,  xxv,  i).  That  some  such  situation 
existed  there  is  an  indication  in  Isa.  xxviii,  where  the 
sentiment  of  the  ruling  classes  comes  into  clash  with  the 
faith  and  insight  of  prophecy,^  Isaiah  is  urging  trust  in 
the  mystically  revealed  word  of  Jehovah  as  against  reliance 
on  man-made  diplomacies.  Seeing  that  he  can  make  no 
headway  against  the  "  scoffers  that  rule  this  people  that  is 
in  Jerusalem  "  (vs,  14),  the  prophet  composes  a  discourse 
in  the  current  Wisdom  idiom  (vss.  23-29)  to  show  by  a 
superior  line  of  analogy  that  Jehovah  no  less  truly  than  they 
is  "'  wonderful  in  counsel,  and  excellent  in  wisdom  "  (v.  29), 
He  introduces  his  discourse  by  the  accepted  Wisdom  for- 
mula (v.  23;  cf,  Prov.  xxii,  17;  see  also  Psa.  xlix,  1-4; 
Ixxviii,  I,  2),  and  for  the  word  "wisdom  "  he  makes  use  of 
the  term  tJuisJiiyaJi,  which  by  this  time  seems  to  have  be- 
come a  kind  of  technical  term  to  denote  the  human  intuition 
in  which  men  were  placing  unlimited  trust  as  a  guaranty 
of  truth  absolute.    We  may  regard  it  as  the  sages'  word  to 

1  This  has  already  been  touched  upon  above  ;  see  pp.  203,  204. 
[461] 


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designate  the  human  initiative  of  intellect  and  sagacity,  the 
earthly  counterpart  to  authoritative  revelation  from  above. 
Earlier  in  the  present  chapter  this  sense  of  endowment  is 
noted  as  underlying  the  literary  consciousness  of  this  third 
canon  division.^  It  was  when  the  feeling  was  at  its  pristine 
height,  and  when  its  sagacious  pronouncements  were  most 
popular,  that  Isaiah  came  into  conflict  with  it  —  not,  how- 
ever, to  denounce  it  but  to  reveal  its  limitations. 

Note.  Isaiah  does  not  quarrel  with  this  reliance  on  thushiyah  or 
human  intuition  ;  rather  he  boldly  makes  Jehovah  cooperate  as  an  abler 
practitioner  in  the  use  of  it.  Micah,  Isaiah's  contemporary,  uses  the 
same  word  (Mic.  vi,  g,  where  it  is  dimly  translated  "  [the  man  of]  wisdom  ") 
in  evident  appreciation  of  its  value.  In  the  older  part  of  the  Book  of 
Proverbs  it  occurs  only  once  (Prov.  xviii,  i),  apparendy  not  yet  stereo- 
typed to  a  philosophical  term.  In  the  introductory  section,  however,  it 
occurs  three  times  (ii,  7;  iii,  21  ;  viii,  14),  twice  as  "sound  wisdom," 
promised  to  the  upright  and  resolute  disciple,  and  the  third  time  as 
"  sound  knowledge,"  claimed  by  Our  Lady  Wisdom  herself. 

Both  Isaiah  and  Micah  seem  thus  to  appeal  to  the  Wis- 
dom strain  of  culture  as  the  prevailing  one  in  their  day, 
with  intimation  of  its  infirmity  and  of  what  ought  to  be 
made  of  it.  In  their  view  it  was  not  keen  to  read  aright  the 
prophetic  signs  of  the  times ;  it  was  perhaps  too  hidebound 
and  opportunist,  too  self-centered  (cf.  Prov.  xviii,  i).  We 
shall  learn  more  of  its  limitations  in  the  Book  of  Job. 
From  Isaiah's  time  onward  the  Wisdom  or  worldly  senti- 
ment seems  to  have  kept  on  in  this  same  static  way,  as  the 
common  educative  factor  in  the  Hebrew  national  economy, 
until  we  hear  the  leaders  of  Jeremiah's  time,  in  their  dread 
of  innovation,  saying,  "  The  law  shall  not  perish  from  the 
priest,  nor  counsel  from  the  wise,  nor  the  word  from  the 
prophet  "  (Jer.  xviii,  18).  Wisdom  had  gained  an  established 
status  as  a  strand  in  the  threefold  web  of  national  guidance 
and  culture. 

1  See  "The  Human  Genius  and  Initiative,"  p.  428,  above. 
[462] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

We  have  thus  got  a  httle  gHmpse  of  the  Wisdom  strain 
of  thinking  in  its  most  popular  days.  The  l^ook  of  Proverbs 
preserves  for  us  its  typical  utterances,  in  their  initial  vigor, 
in  their  developing  art,  in  their  adventurous  estimate  of 
Wisdom  meanings  and  values ;  utterances  gathered  from 
early  times  and  from  various  guilds  or  centers,  reflecting 
the  practical  working  of  the  sound  Hebrew  mind  in  the 
everyday  concerns  of  human  experience  and  intercourse. 
And  like  the  Book  of  Psalms  it  has  taken  its  place,  in  its 
genre,  as.  a  leading  world  classic.  No  other  collection  of 
aphoristic  writings  approaches  it  for  compass  and  cleanness 
and  spiritual  worth. 

Ill 

Job  :  Crucial  Test  of  the  Heart  of  Man.  In  the  middle 
of  our  Bible,  massive  and  majestic,  stands  a  monumental 
work  of  the  world's  literature  before  which  the  sincere 
scholar  can  only  stand  with  the  awe  of  one  who  takes  his 
shoes  from  his  feet.  It  is  the  Book  of  Job.  One's  proper 
attitude  toward  it  must  needs  be  such  as  to  justify  the 
maxim  of  Goethe  quoted  elsewhere  :  "We  really  learn  only 
from  those  books  which  we  cannot  criticize.  The  author  of  a 
book  which  we  could  criticize  would  have  to  learn  from  us." 
Job  is  beyond  our  criticism  and  our  praise,  but  there  are 
few  if  any  books  in  the  world  from  which  we  can  learn 
such  sublime  and  weighty  things  as  its  pages  reveal. 

Note.  A  Modern  Estimate.  Carlyle's  estimate  of  the  Book  of  Job, 
given  with  the  fervid  unction  of  a  kindred  spirit,  has  become  a  kind  of 
classic  pronouncement.  Speaking,  in  his  lecture  on  Mahomet,^  of  the 
Arabs  and  their  land,  he  says : 

"Biblical  critics  seem  agreed  that  our  own  Rook  of  Job  was  written  in  that 
region  of  the  world.  I  call  that,  apart  from  all  theories  about  it,  one  of  the 
grandest  things  ever  written  with  pen.  One  feels,  indeed,  as  if  it  were  not 
Hebrew ;  such  a  noble  universality,  different  from  noble  patriotism  or 
sectarianism,  reigns  in  it.    A  noble  Book  ;  all  men's  Book !   It  is  our  first, 

^  "On  Heroes  and  Hero-Worship."  Lecture  II.   "The  Hero  as  Prophet." 

[  463  J 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

oldest  statement  of  the  never-ending  Problem,  —  man's  destiny,  and  God's 
ways  with  him  here  in  this  earth.  And  all  in  such  free  flowing  outlines; 
grand  in  its  sincerity,  in  its  simplicity ;  in  its  epic  melody,  and  repose  of 
reconcilement.  There  is  the  seeing  eye,  the  mildly  understanding  heart. 
So  true  every  way ;  true  eyesight  and  vision  for  all  things  ;  material  things 
no  less  than  spiritual:  the  Horse,  — 'hast  thou  clothed  his  neck  with 
thunder'i'  —  'he  laughs  at  the  shaking  of  the  spear!'  Such  living  like- 
nesses were  never  since  drawn.  Sublime  sorrow,  sublime  reconciliation ; 
oldest  choral  melody  as  of  the  heart  of  mankind  ;  —  so  soft,  and  great ;  as 
the  summer  midnight,  as  the  world  with  its  seas  and  stars  !  There  is  nothing 
written,  I  think,  in  the  Bible  or  out  of  it,  of  equal  literary  merit." 

It  is  in  the  composition  of  the  Book  of  Job,  with  its  con- 
sistent correlation  and  progress  of  parts  and  plot,  that  the 
Hebrew  literature  approaches  nearest  in  type  and 

Literary  ,       ,.    ^^  .       ,  . 

Type  and  Structure  to  the  literature  ot  other  nations,  espe- 
structure  cially  to  that  of  the  Greeks,  from  whom  our 
modern  standards  are  derived.  Whether  this  was  due  to 
conscious  imitation  is  doubtful ;  the  thing  cannot  be  proved 
one  way  or  the  other.  The  main  question,  however,  to 
which  the  book's  suggestive  analogies  of  form  give  rise,  is, 
whether  it  is  to  be  considered  as  essentially  a  drama,  with 
scenario  and  distribution  of  characters,  or  a  vehicle  of  con- 
troversy, something  like  a  Platonic  dialogue.  This  diver- 
sity of  estimate  comes  from  the  different  relative  values 
accorded  to  its  form,  which  is  narrative  and  dialogue-wise, 
or  to  its  inner  substance,  which  from  a  short  narrative  pro- 
logue passes  into  a  series  of  impassioned  discourses  on  the 
profoundest  problems  of  life.  I  am  not  sure,  however,  that 
this  is  the  essential  alternative.  Another  type  of  discourse 
seems  to  me  worthy  of  consideration  by  the  side  of  the 
dramatic  —  namely,  the  epic  ;  this  on  account  of  the  heroic 
spiritual  achievements,  as  we  may  truly  call  them,  of  Job 
in  his  tremendous  encounter  with  the  mysterious  dealings 
of  God  and  the  mistaken  judgments  of  his  friends.  It  is 
as  if  the  patriarch's  words  were  veritable  deeds  of  valor 
and  victory.  Accordingly,  in  my  studies  of  the  book  I 
have  ventured  to  assign  it  to  the  epic  type,  —  calling  it  for 

L464] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

distinction  "The  Epic  of  the  Inner  Life."^  In  so  doing, 
however,  I  would  not  deny  to  it  other  elements.  It  is  of  no 
great  importance,  after  all,  whether  it  be  called  dramatic  or 
epic ;  it  has  traits  of  both  literary  types,  and  either  term  has 
to  be  materially  accommodated  to  fit  its  case. 

All  this,  however,  is  only  of  the  side  and  the  surface. 
What  is  of  real  account  is  that,  penetrating  to  the  spirit  of 
the  poem,  we  forget  considerations  of  literary  deportment 
while  with  a  sense  of  truly  epic  grandeur  we  trace  the  heroic 
uprise  of  the  intrinsic  heart  of  man,  as  Job,  in  utter  honesty 
with  himself,  in  clear-eyed  assessment  of  things  as  they  are, 
and  in  unshaken  demand  for  the  godlike,  conquers  his  way 
through  bafflements  and  falsities  to  light  and  vindication. 

Note.  The  nearest  classical  parallel  to  Job  is  the  "Prometheus 
Bound"  of  yEschylus,  \;vhich,  though  in  dramatic  form,  embodies  an 
epos.  The  following  brief  outline  of  the  course  of  the  story  may  aid  in 
tracing  the  struggle  of  Job,  the  Hebrew  Prometheus,  to  truth  and  light. 
I  ijote  five  acts  or  stages,  with  their  points  of  objective. 

Act  I.  To  Job's  blessing  and  curse,  i-iii. 

[The  stroke  devised  and  executed;  the  silent  friends;  Job's  access 
of  bewilderment.] 

Act  II.  To  Job's  ultimatum  of  doubt,  iv-x. 

[Wisdom  misfit  and  insipid ;  the  world-order  a  hardness  and  chaos ; 
Job's  plea  for  mutuality  and  mediation.] 

Act  III.  To  Job's  ultimatum  of  faith,  xi-xix. 

[The  friends'  false  attitude;  Job's  life  resolve  of  integrity,  conviction 
that  his  Redeemer  (next  of  kin)  liveth.] 

Act  IV.   To  Job's  verdict  on  things  as  they  are,  xx-xxxi. 

[No  outward  terms  of  profit  and  loss;  yet  wisdom  still  supreme: 
Job's  life  record  ready  for  presentation.] 

Act  V.  To  the  vindicating  denouement,  xxxii-xlii. 

[The  self-constituted  umpire  fails  ;  the  whirlwind  words  display  wis- 
dom and  power  of  creation ;  Job  emerges  to  vindication  and  mediation.] 

1  I  would  here  refer  the  reader  to  my  book  "  The  Epic  of  the  Inner 
Life"  (Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  Boston),  pp.  20-26,  for  an  explanation 
of  the  modified  sense  in  which  I  have  adopted  the  term. 

[  465  J 


•  GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

If  we  let  the  book  speak  for  itself,  not  trying  to  cramp 
its  structure  too  rigidly  either  to  a  dramatic,  an  argumen- 
tative, or  an  epic  model,  we  find  its  framework  simple, 
consecutive,  well  articulated.  In  a  workmanship  quite  be- 
yond that  of  other  Scripture  books  it  reveals  its  occasion, 
its  purpose,  its  motivation,  its  fitting  solution.  I  regard  the 
movement  throughout  as  narrative,  that  of  a  story,  having 
a  developed  plot  with  its  proper  involution  and  unfolding, — 
this  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  it  is  carried  on  for  the 
most  part  not  by  action  and  incident  but  by  the  give  and 
take  of  speech.  In  other  words,  the  action  and  its  event 
are  elements  of  an  inner  history.  An  introduction  or  pro- 
logue two  chapters  long  (i,  ii),  a  short  interlude  or  transition 
(xxxii,  1-5),  and  a  conclusion  of  eleven  verses  (xlii,  7-17), 
all  in  prose,  suffice  to  indicate  the  setting  and  structure  of 
the  piece  ;  the  rest  (iii,  i-xlii,  6),  in  a  steady  fiow  of  im- 
passioned poetry,  gives,  by  the  verbal  encounter  of  several 
characters  (including  Jehovah  Himself)  with  Job,  the  por- 
trayal of  human  integrity,  fidelity,  and  steadfastness  for  the 
sake  of  which  this  truly  epic  poem  exists. 

Note.  The  Book  of  Job,  along  with  the  Pentateuch  and  Isaiah, 
has  come  in  for  a  generous  share  of  surgical  and  destructive  criticism, 
in  the  endeavor  to  determine  what  was  its  original  scope.  The  rather 
prominent  framework  of  three-times  three  rounds  of  speeches  (iii-xxxi), 
embodying  a  debate,  seems  to  have  been  quite  generally  assumed  as  the 
original  nucleus,  and  the  disposition  has  been  to  take  this  torso  as  a 
kind  of  treatise  on  "  Why  God  punishes  the  righteous,"  or  some  such 
abstraction,  —  patching  up  the  text  in  divers  places  to  make  the  frame- 
work consistently  mechanical ;  while  the  parts  that  have  by  critics  of 
various  caliber  been  put  in  peril  thereby  include  such  things  as  the  epi- 
logue, the  Elihu  portion,  the  twenty-eighth  chapter,  the  descriptions  of 
behemoth  and  leviathan,  —  not  always  sparing  even  the  prologue  and 
the  address  from  the  whirlwind.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  present 
study  prefers,  as  in  other  cases,  to  read  the  Book  of  Job  in  its  latest 
edition,  presupposing  that  the  author  —  or  final  editor,  whoever  he  was,  — 
had  reason  and  warrant  for  publishing  the  book  as  it  substantially  is. 
It  gives  a  better  net  result  that  way. 

[466] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

Conjectures  of  the  age  in  which  the  Book  of  Job  was 
written  have  covered  an  extraordinary  range  of  time,  from 
Origin  and  the  age  of  Moses  or  even  earUer  to  the  period 
Authorship  of  the  Greek  domination.  On  account  of  its 
patriarchal  setting  old-time  scholars  have  deemed  it  the 
oldest  book  in  the  Bible  ;  but  this  supposition  went  with 
the  idea  that  the  book  is  a  record  of  chronicled  history 
rather  than  a  virtual  epic  or  dramatic  poem  with  its  marks 
of  creative  invention  and  literary  artistry.  To  assume  this 
latter  alternative,  however,  —  namely,  that  instead  of  an 
annalistic  report  it  is  a  literary  creation,  having  for  basis, 
if  you  please,  an  ancient  Semitic  epos,  puts  a  quite  different 
coloring  upon  the  matter.  It  enables  us  in  better  measure 
to  account  not  only  for  its  primitive  scene  and  setting  but 
for  its  highly  matured  thought  and  art. 

Note.  The  word  "  epos,"  as  defined  by  the  Oxford  Dictionary,  is  "  a 
collective  term  for  early  unwritten  narrative  poems  celebrating  incidents 
of  heroic  tradition ;  the  rudimentary  form  of  epic  poetry."  One  need 
not  enlarge  on  the  application  of  this  definition  here.  It  is  sufficient  to 
mention  the  Promethean  epos  underlying  ^schylos's  "  Prometheus 
Bound,"  the  Odyssean  epos  in  Homer;  the  Eden  epos  underlying 
"Paradise  Lost "  ;  the  Arthurian  epos  underlying  Tennyson's  "  Idylls  of 
the  King,"  all  of  which  embody  central  meanings  for  the  soul  of  a  race 
or  a  nation,  and  none  more  truly  than  our  assumed  epos  of  Job. 

That  something  like  a  Job  epos  was  known  and  influential 
at  a  very  vital  period  of  Israel's  history  is  indicated  by 
Ezekiel,  in  a  passage  already  remarked  upon  in  another 
connection.  Speaking,  in  the  early  years  of  the  Chaldean 
exile,  of  his  people's  chances  for  release,  he  says  of  the 
doomed  homeland,  "  Though  these  three  men,  Noah,  Daniel, 
and  Job,  were  in  it,  they  should  deliver  but  their  own  souls 
by  their  righteousness,  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah  "  (Ezek.  xiv, 
14,  16,  20).  Here  Job,  in  an  imputed  character  like  that  of  the 
Book  of  Job,  is  ranked  with  Noah,  an  ancient  hero  common 
to  Israelites  and  Chaldeans,  and  Daniel,  a  contemporary  of 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Ezekiel  himself.^  All  three  are  adduced  as  personages  of 
paramount  significance  as  related  to  the  destiny  of  Israel ; 
and  yet  it  is  only  here  in  Ezekiel  that  Job  is  mentioned  at 
all  outside  of  the  book  that  bears  his  name,  where,  as  it 
seems,  the  Job  epos  is  wrought  out  in  full. 

This  mention-  of  Job,  especially  as  on  equal  terms  with 
Daniel,  rouses  curious  inquiries.  The  story  of  Daniel,  as 
we  know,  was  written  out  many  years  afterward,  in  our 
Book  of  Daniel,  and  we  can  judge  from  that  story  why  his 
exiled  countrymen,  aware  of  his  wonderful  success  at  court 
(cf,  Ezek.  xxviii,  3,  for  his  reputed  wisdom),  would  build 
great  hopes  on  him.  The  tradition  of  Job,  of  which  this 
mention  in  Ezekiel  is  the  first  trace,  was  afterwards  written 
out  in  like  manner  into  a  work  of  literature.  May  there 
have  been  some  idealized  connection  between  the  ancient 
epos  and  a  contemporary  personage  on  whom,  in  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  timCj  it  was  natural  to  build  hopes  ? 
How  otherwise  can  we  interpret  Ezekiel's  strong  yet  strange 
allusion .'' 

I  am  inclined  to  think  there  was  such  a  connection  ;  and 
let  me  here  give  my  conjecture  for  what  it  is  worth.  It  looks 
to  me  as  if  the  name  "Job,"  on  account  of  its  connotations, 
may  have  been  adopted  by  the  Jewish  elders  (Ezekiel's  words 
were  to  them  ;  see  Ezek.  xiv,  i)  to  stand  for  another  name 
which  during  Nebuchadnezzar's  life  it  would  not  be  safe  or 
politic  to  use.  I  refer  to  their  king  Jehoiachin,  still  a  king 
though  a  prisoner  of  state,  who  at  the  time  of  Ezekiel's  men- 
tion was  in  the  sixth  year  of  his  incarceration  (cf.  Ezek.  viii,  I 
with  XX,  I).  To  make  his  name  openly  current,  especially 
as  associated  with  hopes  of  deliverance,  might  be  perilous 
both  to  him  and  to  them.  To  use  the.  name  "  Job,"  with  the 
understood  sense  of  what  it  meant  and  whom,  would  be 
safe  and   richly  symbolic.    Thus   the  Job   epos   may  have 

^  For  Daniel's  part  in  this  strange  trio  of  worthies,  and  its  suggested 
relation  to  history,  see  above,  pp.  284,  285. 

[468] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

come  cryptically  into  the  Jewish  mind  and  polity,  perhaps 
from  some  source  discovered  in  Chaldea,  and,  having  first 
been  seized  upon  for  the  masking  name  it  bore,  may  in 
course  of  time  have  been  wrought  by  a  master  poet  into  the 
Book  of  Job. 

This  consideration  would  make  the  Book  of  Job  a  prod- 
uct of  the  exile  period,  which  we  have  already  found  so  preg- 
nant of  redemptive  and  prophetic  forces.  It  connects  itself 
with  the  view.  I  have  taken  of  the  individualized  Servant  of 
Jehovah,  as  presented  in  the  Second  Isaiah  ;  whom  I  have 
ventured  to  identify  with  the  king  who  so  patiently  endured 
thirty-seven  years  of  imprisonment  and  then,  at  Nebuchad- 
nezzar's death,  was  released  and  held  in  honor  among 
kings.^  The  similarity  of  experience  and  sentiment  between 
the  Book  of  Job  and  the  Second  Isaiah  has  been  universally 
noted  by  thoughtful  scholars.  It  is  as  if  both  works  had 
been  hewn  from  the 'same  stratum  of  spiritual  discipline  and 
faith,  as  if  underneath  both  were  some  personality  of  sub- 
lime masterliness  and  patience  both  to  achieve  and  to  suffer. 
Nowhere  else  in  the  Old  Testament  do  we  get  so  intimate 
an  approach  to  a  veritable  hero  of  epic  action  and  song. 

As  to  the  authorship  of  the  Book  of  Job,  to  one  who  has 
conjectured  thus  far  a  further  step  of  surmise  is  tempting, 
though  it  must  needs  be  hazarded  with  guardedness  and 
caution.  It  seems  to  come  somehow  from  the  heart  of  that 
imprisonment.  It  connotes  some  personal  conflict  and  issue 
not  invented  but  actual,  —  something  added  to  the  epos 
which  was  its  symbol.  "  When  we  see  the  natural  style," 
says  Pascal,  "'  we  are  quite  astonished  and  delighted  ;  for  we 
expected  to  see  an  author,  and  we  find  a  man."  Nowhere 
in  the  (Jld  Testament  is  the  author  more  masterly,  yet  no- 
where does  the  man  so  eclipse  the  author  as  in  this  Book 
of  Job.     Now  as  we  look  for  the  man  of  the  Second  Isaiah, 

1  For  this  personal  identification  of  the  Servant  of  Jehovah,  with  its 
Scripture  grounds,  see  above,  pp.  315-323. 

[  469  ] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

we  find  one  who  in  the  midst  of  prison  indignities  seems 
to  say  of  himself,  "  The  Lord  Jehovah  hath  given  me  the 
tongue  of  -them  that  are  taught,  that  I  may  know  how  to 
sustain  with  words  him  that  is  weary  :  he  wakeneth  morning 
by  morning,  he  wakeneth  mine  ear  to  hear  as  they  that 
are  taught"  (Isa.  1,  4).  If  these  words  state  something  real 
under  their  poetry,  there  was  a  literary  zeal  and  activity 
pressed  out  of  that  prison  experience,  something  more,  it 
would  seem,  than  was  incorporated  in  the  words  of  the 
Second  Isaiah.  A  remarkable  passage  also,  xii,  17-xiii,  2, 
reads  as  if  experienced  and  written  by  an  eye-witness  of  the 
captivity  and  deportation.  The  similar  firmness  of  attitude 
in  xiii,  15-19  and  Isa.  1,  7-9  cannot  well  go  unnoted  as  one 
compares  the  two  books  ;  it  reads  like  one  and  the  same 
personal  mood.  May  not  this  Job  epos,  already  brought  so 
suggestively  into  the  intimate  hopes  of  Israel,  have  been 
wrought  to  epic  form  by  a  royal  author,  either  in  the  prison 
years  or  in  the  time  that  followed  his  release .-'  One  can  of 
course  answer  neither  yes  nor  no  ;  but  one  can  ponder  the 
fitness  of  the  idea,  putting  the  elements  of  the  case  together. 

Note.  Some  of  the  most  notable  books  of  the  world's  literature 
have  been  written  during  imprisonment.  Two  may  be  here  mentioned  : 
Bunyan's  "  Pilgrim's  Progress  "  and  Cervantes'  "  Don  Quixote."  If 
we  put  the  Book  of  Job  by  the  side  of  these,  we  make  its  occasion  far 
deeper  and  more  far-reaching  than  theirs ;  we  trace  it  to  the  heart  of 
Biblical  truth.    The  occasion  is  worthy  and  cogent. 

In  the  study  of  a  literary  work  so  well  put  together  as 
is  this  Book  of  Job  it  is  important  to  get  first  at  the  main 
point  of  departure  and  to  follow  its  lead  as  far  as 
and  his  Carp-  this  is  self-consistcnt.  Such  an  outset  is  not  lack- 
ing Wager  jj^g  here.  It  is  strongly  marked,  and  the  book's 
whole  movement  is  governed  from  it.  It  is  worded  in  Satan's 
cynical  question  of  motive,  "  Doth  Job  fear  God  for  nought  ?  " 
(i,  9).  To  trace  the  answer  of  this  question,  as  its  whole- 
sale insinuations  arc  directed  against  men  like  Job,  against 

[470] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

the  accepted  wisdom  of  life,  against  God's  governance  of  the 
world,  is  to  my  mind  the  unitary  purpose  and  business  of 
the  Book  of  Job.  Other  problems  come  in  for  solution  by 
the  way,  for  the  vital  radiations  of  the  thought  are  many, 
but  the  large  answer  to  this  question  encompasses  them  all. 
And  the  answer  is  made  not  in  terms  of  a  debate  or  of  an 
ordered  theory,  but  in  the  living  terms  of  a  man  who  is 
true  to  his  sense  of  the  divine  and  honest  with  himself. 
That  is  its  sublimely  epic  quality. 

Let  us  see  how  the  situation  reveals  itself  from  this 
point  of  view. 

The  cynic  spirit,  here  personified  as  the  Satan  or  Accuser, 
gauging  manhood  by  its  selfish  measure,  sees  in  the  best  of 
men  nothing  intrinsically  genuine,  nothing  higher  than  self- 
interest.  Job,  the  man  perfect  and  upright,  who  fears  God 
and  shuns  evil  (i,  i),  is  judged  as  simply  a  prudent  business 
man.  He  serves  God  because  it  pays  to  be  pious  and  good. 
His  wealth,  his  prosperity,  his  renown,  his  happy  household, 
his  honored  age,  are  so  many  elements  of  wage  and  reward. 
One  might  say  it  is  not  the  real  Job  who  is  so  pious,  it  is 
his  possessions  and  comforts,  which  are  like  the  proceeds 
of  an  investment.  So  sure  is  the  Satan  of  this  that  he  is 
ready  to  submit  the  proof  of  it  to  a  wager.  Take  away 
these  rewards,  he  urges,  and  Job  will  renounce  a  service 
that  no  longer  yields  returns.  Such  is  his  cynic  measure  of 
manhood  and  its  motives ;  and  God's  acceptance  of  the 
wager  evinces  God's  faith  in  human  nature.  Man  is  His  own 
handiwork,  created  in  His  image  ;  and  He  takes  the  risk 
of  proving  manhood  true  to  its  unseen  Pattern  and  Type. 
So  Job,  unknown  to  himself,  is  made  a  spectacle  to  the  ages, 
as  the  subject  of  an  arbitrary  experiment.  His  possessions 
are  swept  away,  his  children  killed,  and  to  crown  all  a  leprous 
disease,  elephantiasis,  universally  deemed  the  sign  of  the 
personal  wrath  of  God  —  such  was  Satan's  lie  —  reduces 
him  to  the  extremity  of  wretchedness  and  suffering. 

[471] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

The  cynic's  indictment  is  shrewd  and  sweeping.  Directed 
first  against  the  integrity  of  human  nature  as  typed  in  the 
person  of  Job,  it  makes  him  the  concrete  embodiment  by 
which  the  experiment  will  stand  or  fall.  But  he  is  not  the 
only  object  of  attack.  The  prevailing  Wisdom  idea  is  also 
at  stake,  a  static  and  stereotyped  philosophy  which  has 
laid  itself  open  to  such  imputation  of  motive.  Nor  does 
Jehovah  Himself,  who  has  made  the  pull  of  self-interest  so 
safe  and  profitable,  escape  a  cleverly  insinuated  censure.  In 
sum,  Satan  —  and  many  a  like  spirit  since  —  is  sure  he  has 
unearthed  the  vulnerable  spot  in  the  dealings  of  God  with 
man  and  of  man's  response. 

It  is  in  order  to  raise  this  question  of  Satan's  that  the 
prose  prologue,  chapters  i  and  ii,  with  its  twin  scenes  in 
heaven  and  earth,  is  introduced.  It  is  in  order  to  meet  and 
resolve  its  various  thrusts  of  implication  that  the  ensuing 
chapters  of  poetry,  the  true  epic  body  of  the  story,  are 
wrought  into  symmetry  and  form.  We  cannot  enter  here 
into  an  analysis  of  the  poem  ;  let  us  rather  consider  briefly 
the  three  lines  of  indictment  just  suggested,  putting  Job, 
however,  not  first  but  third. 

I.  The  friends  of  Job,  who,  on  hearing  of  his  affliction, 
come  to  condole  and  remain  to  condemn,  represent  according 

to  their  individual  temperaments  the  current  and 
counter°with  conventional  thinking  of  their  day ;  and  this, 
the  Wisdom    as  the  gist  of  their  discussion  reveals,  is  of  the 

Wisdom  mood  and  strain.  Utterances  of  sages 
are  frequently  cited  or  referred  to  as  drawn  from  venerable 
stores  of  precept  (cf.  viii,  8-10)  with  which  the  friends  and 
Job  alike  are  familiar.  Job  himself  is  as  it  were  a  sage 
among  sages  ;  his  eminence  in  life  has  made  him  so  {cf.  iv, 
1-5).  In  this  respect  the  Book  of  Job  is  essentially  a  Wis- 
dom book  ;  its  mashal  type  ("  parable,"  cf.  xxvii,  i  ;  xxix,  i) 
being  rather  of  the  continuous  than  of  the  Solomonic 
mintage,   connoting  thus   a   riper  and   more   organic   stage 

[472] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

of  development.  It  has  in  fact  reached  a  stage  where,  as  a 
stereotyped  scheme  of  doctrine,  it  is  ready  for  criticism  and 
revision.  Instead  of  the  genial  and  discursive  thing  it  began 
with,  touching  lightly  on  the  practical  thoughts  and  obser- 
vations of  experience.  Wisdom  has  hardened  into  a  -solemn 
orthodoxy,  and  as  such  is  charged,  as  orthodoxies  are  apt  to 
be,  with  dogmatism  and  intolerance.  In  its  attitude  toward 
Job's  affliction,  as  assumed  by  the  friends,  it  betrays  its 
attitude  toward  God  and  toward  human  life.  And  this — • 
to  say  the  least  of  it  —  is  not  of  the  heart  but  of  the  head. 
It  is  stranded  in  its  own  rigid  theory  of  life,  its  narrow 
intellectualism. 

With  this  hard,  unsympathetic  spirit  of  Wisdom  it  is  that 
Job  first  comes  into  collision.  Not  that  he  has  found  its 
principles  unsound,  or  that  it  has  ceased  to  be  a  priceless 
asset  of  life  (cf.  per  contra,  xxviii)  ;  but  as  its  familiar  con- 
cepts are  urged  upon  him,  all  with  the  same  unfriendly 
implication,  they  sound  insipid,  stale,  pointless,  the  merest 
"proverbs  of  ashes"  (cf.  vi,  6,  7  ;  xii,  1-3  ;  xiii,  i,  2,  12), 
Somehow  Wisdom,  good  as  it  is  for  theoretic  and  academic 
standards,  has  failed  to  touch  the  heart  of  this  unique  ex- 
perience.   Its  fitness,  its  application,  is  lacking  (cf.  xvi,  1-5). 

Consider  how  this  was  brought  about.  It  began  with  the 
friends'  deductions  from  Job's  case,  —  deductions  in  strict 
accord  with  their  Wisdom  ideas.  In  their  nai've  philosophy 
of  cause  and  effect  the  sages  had  made  a  mechanical  thing 
of  it.  Identifying  wisdom  with  righteousness  and  folly  with 
wickedness,  they  had  linked  reward  infallibly  with  the  one 
and  ruin  as  infallibly  with  the  other,  leaving  no  room  for 
exceptions.^  They  had  stereotyped  this  idea  into  a  law  of 
life,  which  to  their  thought  was  so  clear  that  they  made 
it  work  both  ways.  If  righteousness  spelled  reward  and 
wickedness  ruin,  then  when  you  see  reward  you  see  the 
righteousness  that  bought  it,  and  when  you  see  ruin  you  see 

1  Cf.  remark,  p.  440,  450,  above. 
[473] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

the  penalty  of  wickedness.  In  Job's  affliction  they  saw  ruin, 
not  only  what  might  have  been  attributed  to  chance  but 
that  aggravated  ruin  which  meant  the  immediate  wrath  of 
God.  Behold  then  the  unspeakable  wickedness  of  the  man. 
God  had  said  it,  and  that  was  enough.  The  human  mind 
must  echo  God's  mind,  and  say  it  too. 

Accordingly,  after  a  season  of  dismay  over  Job's  condition, 
so  enigmatic  to  him,  so  lucid  to  them,  the  friends,  whose 
felt  cue  was  to  withhold  sympathy  where  God  had  withheld 
favor,  entered  upon  their  well-meant  mission  of  convincing 
Job  of  wrongdoing  and  urging  him  by  repentance  and  sub- 
mission to  secure  God's  favor  again.  Their  object  for  them- 
selves is  to  prove  their  orthodoxy  true,  for  him  to  restore  the 
conventional  elements  of  reward  and  favor  on  their  terms. 
What  they  urge  is  worthy  and  noble,  —  granted  their  point 
and  plane  of  view.  But  they  do  not  take  account  of  the 
real  fact,  namely,  Job's  integrity;  and  as  they  go  on  they 
push  their  theory  to  an  absurd  extreme.  It  is  just  here  that 
Job's  encounter  with  them  becomes  heroic  and  in  the  end 
triumphant.  He  is  not  mourning  over  his  losses  or  longing 
for  the  restoration  of  goods  and  family  and  health.  From 
the  disease  that  wastes  him  he  can  expect  only  death.  But 
living  or  dying  he  must  be  honest  with  himself  and  with 
life.  And  he  has  done  nothing  to  deserve  this  affliction. 
To  repent  when  there  is  no  occasion  would  be  an  insincerity. 
To  submit  to  his  affliction  as  if  it  were  deserved  would  be 
submitting  to  an  injustice.  To  do  these  things  on  the  score 
of  wisdom  would  be  to  give  wisdom  a  false  and  selfish 
motive.  It  would  be  like  currying  favor  with  God.  Nay,  in 
his  controversy  with  the  friends  he  brings  their  attitude  to 
just  this  insincere  pass  (xiii,  7-1 1).  They  are  pushing  their 
wisdom  to  false  views  of  God.  Thus  his  encounter  with 
the  Wisdom  cultus,  as  it  is  held  in  his  day,  lays  it  open  to 
something  very  like  Satan's  sneer  of  the  beginning,  '"  Doth 
Job — -doth  any  man  —  fear  God  for  nought .-'  "    And  while 

[474] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

he  thus  finds  the  weak  point  in  the  Wisdom  motive  he 
grandly  beUes  the  cynic's  sneer  as  regards  himself.  He  is 
not  serving  God  and  shunning  evil  for  a  price.  His  loyalty 
to  the  godlike  is  a  thing  intrinsic.  It  belongs  as  truly  to 
manhood  as  it  does  to  manhood's  Creator, 

Such  is  the  answer  that  Job's  response  to  affliction  gives 
to  Satan's  sneer  about  the  motive  of  Wisdom.  While  it 
searches  this  motive  out  with  unsparing  insight  it  does 
Wisdom  an  inestimable  service  by  lifting  it,  as  it  were, 
above  itself  into  the  sphere  of  selfless  manhood. 

2.  While  Satan's  wager  is  fastened  on  the  person  of  Job 
as  the  concrete  embodiment  of  the  test,  it  is  no  less  truly 
directed,  albeit  slantwise,  at  the  Divine  order  of 
ifled  Sense  of  ^^^  world,  the  order  which  has  elicited  such  re- 
the  Divine  sponsc  of  Wisdom.  He  follows  up  his  question, 
"Doth  Job  fear  God  for  nought.?"  with  the 
further  taunt,  "  Hast  not  thou  made  a  hedge  about  him,  and 
about  his  house,  and  about  all  that  he  hath,  on  every  side .-' 
thou  hast  blessed  the  work  of  his  hands,  and  his  substance 
is  increased  in  the  land  "  (i,  lo).  As  much  as  to  say  God 
has  ordered  His  dealings  with  rnankind  on  a  system  of  ex- 
change, of  barter.  If  Job's  piety  and  righteousness  are  his 
shrewdly  calculated  means  of  buying  God's  favor,  no  less 
evidently  God's  favor,  as  expressed  in  protection  and  pros- 
perity, is  also  in  the  market  buying  Job's  allegiance.  On 
this  score  there  is  nothing  to  hinder  a  cynic,  judging  by  his 
own  evil  heart,  from  censuring  the  whole  Divine  order,  with 
its  imputed  arrangement  of  rewards  and  punishments,  as  a 
refined  and  clever  commercialism,  wherein  God  and  man, 
in  watchful  detachment  from  each  other,  are  engaged  each 
in  humoring  an  essential  self-interest.  The  Wisdom  motive, 
as  we  have  just  seen,  is  susceptible  to  such  criticism.  God 
Himself,  so  judged,  does  not  escape  Satan's  implication  of 
being  the  abetter  of  such  a  world  scheme.  Perhaps  that  is 
why  He  so  promptly  agrees  to  the  wager,  though,  as  He 

[475] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

admits,  unjustly  (cf.  ii,  3  ;  ix,  17).  He  has  faith  that  Job 
will  stand  the  tremendous  test  and  be  true  to  essential  God- 
likeness  ;  and  if  Job,  then  the  manhood  of  which  he  is  the 
chosen  type.  More  than  this  :  if  so,  then  man  as  man  has 
it  in  him  to  discover  and  adopt  a  better  order  of  things, 
a  higher  Wisdom  than  barter.  For,  as  we  shall  see,  the 
Book  of  Job  is  steered  toward  this.  And  so  here  too  the 
cynic's  wager  will  fail. 

The  answer  to  this  implication  of  Satan's  question  comes 
from  two  sources  :  Job's  sturdy  remonstrance,  and  the  words 
spoken  from  the  whirlwind.  It  is,  so  to  speak,  an  answer 
in  which  human  intuition  {tJiushiyah)  and  Divine  revela- 
tion have  equal  and  complementary  shares,  —  as  it  were  a 
negative  and  an  affirmative  fitted  to  each  other.i 

The  negative  element — -what  the  Divine  order  is  not  — 
is  involved  in  Job's  bewildered  interrogation  of  his  unmotived 
affliction.  A  sage  among  sages,  expert  in  Wisdom  lore, 
until  this  experience  came  he  had  never  interpreted  God's 
dealings  with  man  otherwise  than  as  the  accepted  Wisdom 
philosophy  dictated.  It  had  seemed  ideally  clear  and  ade- 
quate in  his  "autumn  days,  when  the  friendship  of  God 
{sod,  "the  intimacy")  was  over  his  tent"  (xxix,  4).  But 
now  that  the  supposed  Divine  stroke  was  upon  him,  the  first 
thing  to  fail  him  was  friendship,  sympathy,  fellow  feeling 
(cf.  vi,  14-23).  All  the  sweet  relationship  between  man 
and  man,  so  far  as  mere  Wisdom  could  interpret,  had  be- 
come a  cold,  unfeeling,  impersonal  thing,  blind  to  the  best 
values  of  life.  But  that  was  only  the  beginning.  God  too, 
on  his  hitherto-held  theory,  was  mysteriously,  cruelly  es- 
tranged. No  scheme  of  right  and  wrong,  of  justice  and 
guilt,  of  sin  and  righteousness,  could  account  for  it.  An 
arbitrary  injustice  had  been  done  (cf.  ix,  17),  an  outrage  to 
his  reason  and  sense  of  personal  relationship,  and  he  could 
ascribe  it  to  no  one  but  God.    Yet  he  would  not  join  with 

1  Cf.  note,  p.  462,  above. 
[476] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

his  friends  and  call  it  justice  and  desert.  No  ;  rather,  let- 
ting them  entreat  or  rave  as  they  would,  he  addressed  his 
remonstrance  straight  to  God,  in  a  terrific  indictment  of  His 
world  order  (ix)  which  one  might  call  blasphemous  if  one 
did  not  reflect  that  it  was  urged  in  the  behalf  of  the  Godlike. 
A  God  who  will  so  treat  the  creatures  of  His  hands,  and 
give  them  no  clue  to  the  reason  why,  is  acting  out  of  char- 
acter (cf.  X,  8-17).  From  this  indictment,  which  has  pri- 
mary relation  to  himself,  a  righteous  man  suffering  as  if  he 
were  wicked,  he  goes  on  later  to  the  question  which  puzzled 
many  piQus  observers  of  old,  why  the  wicked  were  prospered 
in  life  apparently  without  reference  to  Divine  laws  of  reward 
and  penalty  (cf.  Psa.  xvii,  13-15  ;  xxxvii ;  xlix  ;  Ixxiii).  He 
lays  it  more  to  heart  than  do  the  Psalmists  and  the  friends. 
These  have  explanations  that  satisfy  them,  either  pious  or 
savage ;  but  it  dismays  him  to  contemplate  the  seeming  con- 
tradictions of  the  Divine  order  as  interpreted  on  principles 
of  orthodox  Wisdom  (xxi ;  xxiv).  Honest  with  himself,  he 
is  no  less  honest  to  fact,  to  things  as  they  are,  though  the 
contemplation  of  them  leaves  him  utterly  bewildered  as  to 
God's  dealings  with  His  world.  Yet  all  the  while  his  plea 
is  for  the  just,  the  open,  the  friendly  ;  his  honesty  is  God- 
like ;  he  is  drawing  near  to  the  true  solution  though  as  yet 
his  eyes  are  holden.  And  one  thing  is  becoming  clear  : 
God  is  not  buying  man's  allegiance  at  a  price  ;  that  can  no 
more  hold  than  that  man  at  a  price  can  buy  God's  favor. 
The  hard  old  order  which  Job  once  believed  in  and  to  which 
the  friends  still  cling  is  ready  for  rectification  ;  Job  himself, 
in  his  person,  is  besieging  God's  judgment  seat  for  some- 
thing more  divine,  more  human  (cf.  xxiii,  2-7). 

The  affirmative  answer,  which  after  men's  arguments 
have  spent  themselves  comes  eventually  to  meet  both 
Satan's  criticism  and  Job's  longing  surmise,  is  contained  in 
the  words  of  God  from  the  whirlwind,  chapters  xxxviii  to 
xli-    These  majestic  chapters,  among  the  sublimest  in  all 

[477] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

» 
Scripture,  seem  at  first  impression  to  answer  nothing,  and 
yet  as  the  impression  deepens  they  answer  everything.  They 
are  like  a  cadence  to  the  whole  strain  of  the  Book  of  Job, 
modulating  from  the  stormy  discords  of  controversy  and  the 
plaintive  notes  of  woe  to  the  large  harmonies  of  a  full- 
ordered  world.  It  is  the  calm  response  of  Divine  revelation, 
indeed,  but  of  the  revelation  that  is  going  on  all  the  while 
to  those  whose  eyes  can  see,  —  not  magic  or  miracle,  not 
the  exceptional  things  that  one  individual  can  claim,  but  the 
orderly  ongoings  of  nature,  full  of  a  fathomless  wisdom  and 
power,  in  the  reign  of  which  earth  and  sea  and  «ky,  with 
their  endlessly  varied  life  and  function,  are  adjusted  to  one 
supreme  Will  and  to  one  another,  so  that  every  creature  is 
free  to  live  its  own  peculiar  life  and  find  its  individual  purpose 
in  the  sum  of  things.  Such  a  revelation  is  open  always  and 
to  all.  It  finds  Job  first,  who  feels  his  littleness  before  so 
vast  a  panorama  of  wisdom  and  power  and  his  presumption 
in  daring  to  question  it  (xl,  3-5).  The  opening  of  his  eyes  is 
the  opening  of  a  contrite  heart,  whose  response  is  (xlii,  5,6): 

I  had  heard  of  thee  by  the  hearing  of  the  ear ; 
But  now  mine  eye  seeth  thee : 
Wherefore  I  abhor  myself, 
And  repent  in  dust  and  ashes. 

It  finds  the  friends  not  in  any  disposition  to  avail  themselves 
of  it  but  in  speechless  terror  that  God  should  speak  at  all ; 
and  it  is  through  Job's  intercession  that  they  come  at  last 
to  the  sense  of  forgiveness  and  favor.  "  For  ye  have  not 
spoken  of  me  the  thing  that  is  right,"  is  the  Divine  sum- 
mary, "  as  my  servant  Job  hath  "  (xlii,  8).  Even  those  indict- 
ing remonstrances  of  his,  it  would  seem,  so  fearless  of  pain 
and  darkness  and  death,  were  included  in  "'  the  thing  that 
is  right."  They  were  aimed  right,  and  out  of  a  Godlike 
heart ;  the  rest  was  incidental.  And  as  for  the  cynic's  slant- 
wise gibe,  that  God  was  virtually  buying  Job's  allegiance, 
there  is  no  room  for  that  any  more. 

[478] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

3.  After  all  is  said  and  summed,  however,  the  supreme 
meaning  of  the  book  before  us  is  Job  himself,  the  man  Job, 
"perfect  and  upright"  in  devout  manhood,  and 
Wager  was  in  spite  of  Uttermost  trial  remaining  so.  "Ye 
^°°  have  heard  of  the  patience  of  Job,  and  have  seen 

the  end  of  the  Lord,"  is  St.  James's  comment  (James  v, 1 1), 
the  appreciative  note  of  a  brother  of  our  Lord  whose  epistle 
may  be  not  unfitly  regarded  as  the  New  Testament  book  of 
Wisdom  1  (cf.  James  iii,  1 7).  "  The  patience  of  Job,"  —  or,  as 
one  might  say,  consistency  with  himself  and  with  the  proved 
wisdom  of  life.  In  other  words,  in  this  Book  of  Job  is 
drawn  the  full-length  portrait  of  manhood,  true,  fearless, 
steadfast,  measuring  itself  in  extreme  test  with  the  mind  of 
the  universe,  human,  demonic,  divine,  and  coming  out  on 
equal  and  victorious  terms.  It  is  the  triumph  of  human 
personality,  as  it  answers  to  its  possibilities  in  the  image 
and  likeness  of  its  Creator. 

It  is  this  masterly  portrayal  that  makes  the  Book  of  Job 
what  may  be  called  the  pivotal  book  of  the  Old  Testament 
dispensation,  the  book  wherein  human  intuition  and  divine 
revelation  meet  in  a  hard-won  and  well-won  cooperation, 
seeing  eye  to  eye. 

Note.  That  valued  endowment  of  thushiyah  —  intuitive  wisdom 
— which  we  have  noted  in  Proverbs  and  elsewhere  plays  a  considerable 
part  in  the  thought  of  the  Book  of  Job,  the  word  occurring  five  times. 
In  v,  12,  Eliphaz  makes  it  inconsistent  with  craftiness.  In  vi,  13,  Job,  in 
the  thick  of  his  bewilderment,  complains  that  it  is  driven  ^way  from  him. 
In  xi,  6,  Zophar  praises  it  as  a  twofold  insight.  In  xii,  16,  Job  ascribes 
it  to  God  as  does  Isaiah  xxviii,  29.  In  xxvi,  3,  Job  denies  it  by  ironical 
implication  to  the  pedantic  Bildad.  The  use  of  the  word  seems  to  mark 
the  golden  time  of  the  Wisdom  cultus,  when  the  sages  felt  an  element 
of  mysticism  in  it ;  in  the  later  stages  as  represented  in  Ecclesiastes  and 
others  this  phase  of  it  seems  to  have  passed ;  cf.,  for  instance,  Eccles.  vii, 
24.  It  is  Job's  use  of  his  experience,  in  fact,  which  proves  the  reality 
and  genuineness  of  thushiyalir 

1  Cf.  below,  p.  636.  2  Q{_  note,  p.  462,  above. 

[479] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

The  astonishing  thing  in  the  wager  that  brings  this  about 
is  that  God  should  lend  Himself  so  readily  to  a  game  of 
chance,  —  as  if  to  Him,  as  to  Satan,  Job's  conduct  were 
a  matter  of  hazard  and  guesswork.  Natural  enough  to  an 
unprincipled,  unattached  spirit  like  Satan,  it  does  not  look 
beseeming  to  God ;  He  ought,  one  would  think,  to  be  surer 
of  His  own  handiwork.  But  —  if  one  may  dare  say  a  thing 
so  anthropomorphic  of  God  —  His  consent  to  Satan's  ex- 
periment was  not  a  gamble.  It  was  a  faith.  He  had  faith 
in  the  essential  Godlikeness  of  human  nature,  a  certitude  that 
Job  was  loyal  not  for  reward  or  self-appeasement  but  because 
it  was  /;/  him  to  be  loyal  to  the  Godlike.  The  Godlike  was 
his  truer  element.  If  the  experiment  proved  this  true,  then 
the  severity  of  the  test,  instead  of  breaking  Job  down,  would 
but  affirm  in  deeper  and  surer  terms  the  intrinsic  worth  of 
his  manhood. 

And  that  is  how  the  wager  was  won.  The  agreement  in 
heaven,  we  will  remember,  was  outside  the  scene  ;  it  was 
Job  who,  all  unwittingly,  won  it  by  the  confirmed  integrity 
of  his  own  human  personality.  The  successive  strokes  of 
his  affliction  as  they  fell  found  him  steadfast  and  loyal  in 
spite  of  wife's  reproach  and  life's  utter  closure.  So  far  as 
Satan's  part  was  concerned,  the  wager  was  won  speedily : 
the  human  in  Job  had  won  it.  So  far  as  God's  share  of  the 
experiment  was  concerned,  however,  it  was  only  just  begun. 
It  was  the  Godlike  in  Job  that  more  than  won  it.  The 
failure  of  friends,  the  futility  of  the  conventional  notions 
of  Wisdom,  the  hard  sense  of  God's  dealings  urged  upon 
him  by  friends  and  suffering  alike,  spurred  the  Godlike  in 
Job  to  a  sturdy  creativeness.  Out  of  the  blank  denial  that 
seemed  ever^'where  to  have  blighted  the  face  of  being  he 
gradually  shaped  an  Everlasting  Yea.  His  creative  unit  was 
the  imperative  demand  for  sympathy,  mutualness,  sincerity, 
in  the  free  relations  of  life,  —  the  thing  wherein  the  friends 
failed  him  (cf,  vi,  14-30  ;  xii,  4,  5  ;  xix,  13-22),  nor  human 

[480] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

friends  only  but  the  whole  divine-human  order  of  things 
(ix,  I-I2),  He  could  not  bear  that  this  should  be  remote, 
one-sided,  arbitrary.  Accordingly,  as  human  friendships  and 
theories  failed,  his  heart  began  to  reach  out,  as  by  timid  ten- 
tacles, toward  a  sympathy  which  would  not  fail,  a  responsive 
heart  which  somewhere,  somehow,  would  accord  him  justice 
and  understanding.  This,  I  think,  is  the  main  surge  of  Job's 
constructive  spirit,  an  intuition  based  on  his  own  conscious- 
ness of  right  and  mercy  (ix,  21-24),  Beginning  with  the 
sense  of  what  is  not  but  ought  to  be,  a  personal  medium  of 
exchange  (ix,  32-35),  his  longing  shapes  itself  into  a  plea 
(xiii,  20-22),  then  grows  in  clearness  and  certitude  until  the 
imaged  umpire  (ix,  33)  is  believed  in  as  a  witness  on  high 
(xvi,  19-21)  and  then  strongly  asserted  as  his  Redeemer 
(xix,  25-27,  go'el;  lit.  "next  of  kin")  in  consequence  of 
whose  advocacy  God  will  no  more  be  a  stranger.  On  this 
uprise  of  the  Godlike  in  man  toward  the  manlike  in  God 
hangs  all  the  rest  of  Job's  complaint  and  ideal.  As  he 
identifies  his  disease  with  the  immediate  stroke  of  God  his 
appeal  is  from  the  God  arbitrary  and  ruthless  to  the  God 
compassionate  and  friendly  (x,  3-7),  As  his  leprous  body 
draws  near  the  grave,  with  no  hope  of  vindication  on  this 
side,  he  endeavors  to  turn  the  negative  analogies  of  nature 
into  a  suggestion  of  life  beyond  (xiv,  7-17);  but  whether 
this  may  be  affirmed  or  not,  his  final  words  proclaim  him 
ready  to  enter  upon  it  bearing  before  God  the  record  of  his 
earthly  life  with  the  pride  of  a  prince  (xxxi,  35-37),  Thus, 
as  we  may  say,  the  potent  surge  of  the  Godlike  in  Job's 
personality  rises  above  earthly  hardness  and  falsity  and 
creates  the  thing  that  ought  to  be,  the  cooperative  sympathy 
and  fellowship  wherein  (jod  and  man  respond  to  each  other 
in  freedom  of  spirit.  The  wager  has  ceased  to  be  an  experi- 
ment, has  proved  itself  not  motiveless  but  purposeful  on  the 
part  of  God.  It  has  opened  the  way,  God's  way,  to  strong 
and  creative  manhood, 

[481] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

"  And  Jehovah  turned  the  captivity  of  Job,  when  he 
prayed  for  his  friends  "  (xHi,  lo).  After  the  struggle  to 
hght  and  humble  reconcilement  comes  intercession,  with  Job 
himself,  as  Eliphaz  had  blindly  promised  (cf.  xxii,  ^6-^6) 
and  as  Elihu  had  self-confidently  offered  (cf.  xxxiii,  5-7), 
acting  as  advocate  and  daysman.  One  thinks  of  another 
captivity,  a  literal  fact  of  Hebrew  history,  a  captivity  even- 
tually turned  to  restoration,  wherein  an  unnamed  personage 
who  was  esteemed  "  stricken,  smitten  of  God,  and  afflicted" 
(Isa.  liii,  3,  4  ;  cf.  Jer.  xxii,  28),  yet  "  bare  the  sin  of  many, 
and  made  intercession  for  the  transgressors."  It  yields  an 
untold  wealth  of  significance  to  meditate  on  these  two 
captivities  together,  with  their  personal  avails,  as  told  in 
the  Second  Isaiah  and  the  Book  of  Job ;  they  belong  alike 
to  the  supreme  disciplines  and  disclosures  of  human  life. 

III.    The  Five  Megilloth 

Immediately  succeeding  the  Book  of  Job  in  this  literary 
section  of  the  Hebrew  canon  are  five  short  Scripture  books 
which  by  Hebrew  readers  came  to  be  known  as  "  the  five 
Megilloth"  (lit.  "the  five  rolls"),  for  which  term  we  might 
fitly  substitute  "the  five  little  classics,"  such  being  the 
popular  estimate  in  which  they  were  held.  These,  in  the  most 
usual  Hebrew  order,  are  :  The  Song  of  Songs,  Ruth,  Lam- 
entations, Ecclesiastes,  and  Esther.  The  fact  that  they  are 
grouped  by  themselves,  with  a  distinctive  name  for  the  col- 
lection, gives  them  a  place  of  their  own  in  the  make-up  of 
Biblical  literature  ;  their  individual  meanings  also  as  classics 
of  special  value  call  for  their  due  of  consideration. 


Uses  and  Estimates  of  the  Group.  Some  notion  of  the 
peculiar  distinction  accorded  to  these  Megilloth  may  be 
gathered  from  the  fact  that  the  reading  of  them  was  associ- 
ated with  the  observance  of  the  recurring  festival  seasons  in 

[482] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

Jerusalem.  Whether  this  was  by  public  appointment  or  by 
a  spontaneous  social  arrangement  is  not  clear  ;  the  latter 
In  Jewish  seems  more  likely.  Nor  is  it  immediately  plain, 
Social  Life  except  in  the  case  of  Lamentations  and  Esther, 
what  connection  was  felt  between  the  sentiment  of  the  books 
and  that  of  the  feasts.  One  thinks  most  naturally  of  them 
as  read  not  for  stiff  edification,  as  a  didactic  exercise,  but 
for  recreation,  as  a  sweetener  of  reunion  and  genial  inter- 
course. To  such  use  they  are  well  adapted.  They  may  be 
regarded  as  their  age's  vehicle  of  popular  entertainment  and 
instruction,  analogous  to  the  drama  of  Shakespeare's  time  and 
the  novel  of  our  own.  Thus  it  came  about  in  the  finished 
organization  of  the  Jewish  commonwealth,  with  its  social  and 
religious  customs,  that  the  Song  of  Songs  was  regularly  read 
at  the  Feast  of  Passover,  Ruth  at  the  Feast  of  Weeks  or 
Pentecost,  Ecclesiastes  at  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  Esther 
at  the  Feast  of  Purim,  and  Lamentations  on  the  Ninth  of  Ab, 
the  fast  day  observed  in  commemoration  of  the  destruction 
of  Jerusalem. 

Of  these  five  occasions  four  are  festival  seasons,  only  one, 
the  one  marked  by  the  central  book  of  the  group,  being  a 
fast  day.  The  general  connotation  of  them  was  not  legal 
nor  prophetic,  not  austere  at  all  but  care-free  and  joyous  ; 
times  when,  as  it  were,  the  mind  and  mood  of  the  people 
could  let  itself  go.  Its  sense  of  freedom  and  well-being  is 
fitly  indicated  in  Nehemiah's  advice  to  the  people  when  on 
the  birthday  of  Judaism  they  were  minded  to  take  their  law 
weeping":  "  Go  your  way,  eat  the  fat,  and  drink  the  sweet, 
and  send  portions  unto  him  for  whom  nothing  is  prepared  ; 
for  this  day  is  holy  unto  our  Lord  ;  neither  be  ye  grieved  ; 
for  the  joy  of  Jehovah  is  your  strength  "  (Neh.  viii,  lo  ; 
cf.  also  Esth.  ix,  19,  22).  Freedom,  deliverance,  confidence, 
—  such  was  the  unspoken  language  of  these  festival  occa- 
sions, a  sentiment  that  the  one  memorial  of  the  nation's 
dispersion  did  not  avail  to  impair. 

[  483  ] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

It  is  not  without  significance  that  these  Megilloth,  or  little 
classics,  should  have  come  to  be  associated,  as  by  a  natural 
In  Literary  affinity,  with  the  unprescribed  observances  of  the 
Appreciation  feasts.  They  too,  in  a  sense  not  so  true  of  other 
Scripture,  are  literary  works  in  which  the  free  Hebrew  mind 
has  let  itself  go.  Written  neither  in  criticism  nor  in  propa- 
ganda, they  have  not  the  fear  of  orthodoxy  nor  the  awe  of 
mystic  revelation  before  their  eyes.  They  represent  the 
thoughts  and  sentiments  in  which  the  popular  mind  can 
take  pleasure  or  find  itself  reflected,  without  reference  to  the 
big  monitions  of  priest  or  prophet.  Perhaps  that,  is  why 
three  of  these  books,  Song  of  Songs,  Ecclesiastes,  and 
Esther,  did  not  attain  to  a  confirmed  status  in  the  canon 
until  late  and  after  much  hesitation  of  estimate.  They  were, 
in  a  word,  literary  works  that  gave  free  rein  to  the  sincerest 
thought  and  feeling,  letting  the  question  of  official  sanction 
take  care  of  itself.  If  the  canon  was  eventually  liberal 
enough  to  include  them,  so  much  the  more  hospitable  and 
tolerant  the  canon.' 

Nor  should  we  fail  to  note  here  the  variety  and  the 
artistic  quality  observable  in  these  works.  All  the  leading 
Hebrew  types  of  literary  workmanship  —  song,  idyl,  elegy, 
mashal,  plotted  story  —  are  in  turn  represented,  each  by 
what  may  be  called  a  cabinet  masterpiece,  a  specimen  of 
finished  literature  in  its  kind.  This  fact  does  not  look  for- 
tuitous. It  is  as  if  the  Hebrew  literature,  proudly  conscious 
of  itself,  were  minded  to  come  out  from  its  ancient  seclu- 
sion and  measure  itself  by  the  standards  of  the  world. ^ 
It  was  in  a  ripened  and  highly  cultured  period  that  this 
final  section  of  the  Old  Testament  was  made  up,  a  period 
wherein  the  most  influential  literature  in  the  world  was 
its  rival.  We  do  well  to  give  this  fact  its  due  among  the 
Hebrew  men  of  letters  in  whose  care  were  the  uniquely 
educated  people  of  a  book. 

1  Cf.  p-  431,  above. 
[484] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

II 

Traits  of  the  Individual  Books.  The  choice  and  finished 
Hterary  form  observable  in  these  Megilloth  connotes  some- 
thing quite  other  than  pride  of  verbal  or  structural  artistry. 
It  is  in  its  finely  wrought  way  a  reflection  of  the  soul  within. 
One  may  apply  to  it  Spenser's  words, 

For  of  the  soule  the  bodie  forme  doth  take ; 
For  soule  is  forme,  and  doth  the  bodie  make. 

True  as  this  is  of  all  well-meant  literature,  we  seem  to  recog- 
nize it  more  as  in  form  and  phrase  the  piece  is  more  care- 
fully molded.  It  is  dealing  with  a  finer,  more  penetrative 
thrust  of  truth.  This,  I  think,  can  be  said  of  the  works 
now  under  consideration.  One  discerns  in  each  of  them 
not  so  much  a  great  mass  or  landmark  of  Biblical  disclosure 
as  a  kind  of  cabinet  piece,  something  clarifying,  corrective, 
some  view  that  makes  for  the  true  balance  and  perspective 
of  things.  There  is  about  them  a  certain  intimacy  of  spirit- 
ual relation,  a  tribute  not  only  to  the  new  and  cogent  but 
to  the  wholesome  and  familiar.  Hence  the  value  accorded 
to  them  in  the  observances  of  the  festival  seasons. 

Two  of  the  five  Megilloth,  the  Song  of  Songs  and  the 
Book  of  Ruth,  have  been  in  part  discussed  in  the  preceding 
chapters.  They  must  needs  come  up  again,  however,  in 
their  canonical  order,  for  the  sake  of  their  respective  con- 
tributions to  the  treasury  of  Hebrew  classics. 

I.  In  "The  Song  of  Songs,  which  is  Solomon's"  a 
notable  departure  is  made  from  the  lines  of  thought  and 
Song  of  sentiment  conventionally  deemed  Scriptural, — 
Songs:  Can-  whether  to   the   help    or   hurt   of   sacred   values 

tata  of  the  ^  .  . 

Awakening     has  been  a  much-vexed  question.     It  is  the  only 

of  Love  Scripture  book  that  deals  with  the  human  passion 

of  love,  the  love  of  the  sexes  for  each  other,  that  pervasive 

theme  without  which  modern  romance  could  hardly  exist, 

[485] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

yet  which  rehgious  asceticism  and  sanctimony  have  viewed 
askance  as  if  it  were  a  thing  to  be  apologized  for.  As  such 
it  sounds  at  first  reading  hke  a  Hterary  interloper.  The 
tone  of  the  book  is  so  richly  Oriental  and  sensuous  that 
both  it  and  the  Bible  which  sponsors  it  are  placed  as  it  were 
on  trial,  it  for  its  frank  disregard  of  the  ascetic  and  prudish, 
the  Bible  for  its  warm  hospitality  to  diverse  works.  Such 
has  always  been  the  book's  equivocal  fortune,  which  scholars 
have  tried  to  adjust  by  giving  it  allegorical  and  esoteric 
meanings  both  Jewish  and  Christian.  With  these  we  need 
not  concern  ourselves  here,  at  least  until  we  have  seen  what 
simpler  suggestion  lies  in  the  rich  imagery  and  description 
of  the  poem.  We  may  find,  indeed,  that  the  Bible,  with  its 
liberality  of  inclusion  makes  room  therein  for  what  is  at 
once  the  most  primal  and  the  most  sacred  relation  in  life.' 

Note.  The  Song  of  Songs  as  the  supposed  c/ief  cfceuvre  of  the 
Solomonic  school  of  lyric  poetry,  and  its  relative  purity  of  sentiment  as 
compared  with  that  of  other  Oriental  Uterature,  is  spoken  of  on  page  88, 
above.  This  early  introduction  of  the  poem  does  not  imply  an  early 
date  of  composition  or  Solomonic  authorship  ;  these  depend  upon  quite 
other  considerations. 

The  tissue  of  the  book,  as  the  title  intimates,  is  super- 
latively lyric,  the  loftiest  reach  of  Hebrew  song.  It  is  the 
Its  Literary  ^y'^^^  mood,  with  its  singleness  and  intensity  of 
Type  and       emotional  states,  that  is  throughout  the  control- 

aping  jj^g  element.  All  along,  however,  a  quasi- 
dramatic  element  supervenes,  a  suggestion  of  scene  and 
personation,  which  tempts  the  reader  to  search  for  a  coordi- 
nated plot  but  with  elusive  results.  To  make  a  built  drama 
of  it,  or  even  something  analogous  to  an  Elizabethan  masque, 
calls  for  too  much  artifice  of  interpretation  ;  it  does  not  jus- 
tify itself  against  the  next  expositor.  The  Hebrew  genius, 
at  its  freest  in  the  impassioned  lyric,  was  lame  and  clumsy 
in  the  dramatic  ;  the  Book  of  Job  has  to  some  extent  evinced 
that.   We  can,  however,  call  the  book  before  us  a  lyric  cycle. 

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TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

Somewhat  like  the  Hbretto  of  a  cantata,  it  is  a  series  of  lyric 
moods,  called  forth  by  conflicting  interests  or  desires,  and 
moving  in  music  to  a  firm  lyric  situation,  which  latter  em- 
bodies the  underlying  purpose  of  the  whole.  Thus,  while 
not  unobservant  of  dramatic  concatenation,  its  parts  remain 
true  to  the  dictum  later  laid  down  by  Milton  that  a  living 
poem  should  be  "  simple,  sensuous,  impassioned."  It  lets 
the  passion  of  pure  and  invincible  love  sing  its  own  story. 

A  main  difficulty  in  forming  a  consistent  concept  of  this 
Song  of  Songs  is  in  getting  at  a  clear  situation  out  of  which 
its  elusive  opulence  of  imagery  and  ardor  may 
Conceived  be  cvolved.  For  such  situation  the  sentiment  and 
Situation  atmosphere  of  King  Solomon's  court,  realized  or 
assumed,  was  evidently  in  the  mind  of  the  author.  Was 
there  something  there,  recorded  or  intimated,  from  which 
his  creative  genius  could  derive  the  tissue  of  his  lyric  story .? 
The  Hebrew  mind,  with  its  strong  sense  of  realism,  did  not 
take  kindly  to  pure  fiction  ;  it  sought  some  peg  of  fact  or 
of  old-time  tradition  on  which  to  hang  its  poem  or  story  or 
discourse.  Can  such  a  concrete  support  be  discerned  under 
the  verbal  splendors  of  this  Song  of  Songs  ? 

I  think  a  very  suggestive  one  can  be  cited.  It  is  con- 
tained in  the  story  of  Abishag  the  Shunammite,  who  as 
a  choicely  selected  maiden  ministered  to  King  David  in  his 
extreme  old  age  (i  Kings  i,  1-4),  and  who  after  his  death 
was  desired,  to  his  undoing,  by  Adonijah,  Solomon's  ambi- 
tious elder  brother  (i  Kings  ii,  13-25),  There  is  nothing 
in  the  story  thus  far  to  supply  substance  for  the  song  cycle, 
but  there  is  something  out  of  which  such  a  healthy  ideal 
as  prevails  in  the  song  could  naturally  evolve  it.  If  we  add 
to  the  Abishag  episode  the  thought  of  her  earlier  plighted 
love,  and  the  equally  probable  thought  that  the  amorous 
young  king,  after  Adonijah's  death,  may  have  desired  her 
—  as  the  Oriental  custom  permitted  —  for  his  harem,  we 
have  all  the  factual  suggestion  needed  for  the  situation  of 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

this  cantata,  as  also  a  direct  channel  of  ideal  toward  its 
crowning  portrayal  of  mated  love.  That  the  old-time  story 
was  actually  in  the  poet's  inventive  mind  is  of  course  not 
to  be  asserted,  but  to  put  it  there  with  its  imagined  sequel 
does  much  to  give  ground  and  meaning  to  a  situation 
which  the  poem  itself  has  left  somewhat  vague. 

Note.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  composition  of  the  Song  of 
Songs  belongs  to  the  post-exilic  period  of  the  scribe  and  the  man  of 
letters,  when  the  older  literature  was  the  quarry  and  gleaning-ground  for 
edifying  values  suited  to  newer  needs  and  tastes.  A  prominent  trait  of 
this  period  has  been  noted  in  .what  is  said  of  the  use  of  midrash,  or 
interpretative  comment.  See  page  407  above,  footnote,  for  the  existence 
of  such  midrash  in  the  Books  of  Chronicles;  see  also  page  419  for  the 
view  of  the  Book  of  Jonah  as  a  virtual  midrash  on  2  Kings  xiv,  25-27. 
If  we  hesitate  to  ascribe  to  the  Song  of  Songs  the  dignity  and  solemnity 
of  a  midrash,  may  we  not  at  least  —  in  musical  parlance  —  regard  it  as 
a  kind  of  fantasia,  or  love  rhapsody,  which,  however,  modulates  in  the 
end  to  something  worthy  of  a  place  among  the  five  Megilloth .''  Finis 
co?vnat  opus. 

It  is  not  easy  on  any  consideration  to  sift  and  assign  the 
various  elements  of  'the  poem,  modeled  as  this  doubtless 
How  this  is  ^^^  ^^  ^^  customary  wedding-week  celebrations, 
Borne  out  in  among  the  solos,  antiphons,  and  choruses  of  its 
^^"^  setting,  and  through  the  progressive  stages  of  its 
sentiment.  In  this  respect  the  poem  ranks  as  one  of  the 
most  puzzling  books  of  Scripture.  To  reduce  its  wayward 
emotions  to  a  situation  like  the  one  just  described,  however, 
seems  to  me  the  simplest  and  most  lucid  solution  available. 
Consider  how  on  the  whole  the  action  —  if  such  it  may  be 
called  —  answers  to  it.  Looking  under  the  scenic  and  vocal 
setting  we  note  that  two  main  characters  dominate  the  course 
of  the  poem:  King  Solomon  (cf.  iii,  6-1 1  ;  viii,  11,  12), 
appearing  first  in  the  guise  and  with  all  the  puissance  of 
a  royal  wooer,  and  later  put  off  with  another  award  ;  -and 
a  certain  north-country  maiden  (Shulammite  =  Shunammite, 
vi,  13),  whose  solicited  love,  being  already  plighted  elsewhere, 

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TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

refuses  response  to  all  the  king's  pleas  and  praises,  and  in 
the  end  emerges  stanchly  faithful  to  her  previous  affiance. 
Thus  we  may  say  an  essential  spiritual  force  was  revealed. 
For  Solomon's  assumed  time  and  Orientalism  was  portrayed 
the  victory  of  the  heart  over  the  harem,  and  for  all  times 
and  minds  the  victory  of  essential  love  over  the  self-indulgent 
charms  of  the  flesh  and  the  world.  It  is  like  a  translation 
of  love  into  selfless  and  spiritual  terms.  The  Shulammite, 
responding,  as  mindful  of  royalty,  in  all  gentleness  and  lowly 
homage,  yet  remains  true  to  the  dictates  of  her  own  steadfast 
heart.  It  is  for  her  not  a  willfulness  but  a  life.  Her  final 
sense  of  the  issue,  as  expressed  to  her  restored  beloved,  is 

Set  me  as  a  seal  upon  thy  heart, 

As  a  seal  upon  thine  arm : 

For  love  is  strong  as  death ; 

Jealousy  is  cruel  as  Sheol ; 

The  flashes  thereof  are  flashes  of  fire, 

A  very  flame  of  Jehovah. 

Many  waters  cannot  quench  love, 

Neither  can  floods  drown  it : 

If  a  man  would  give  all  the  substance  of  his  house  for  love. 

He  would  utterly  be  contemned  (viii,  6,  7). 

And  this  is  not  merely  her  verdict,  it  is  the  constructive  idea 
of  the  Song  of  Songs  itself,  wrought  out  in  a  lilt  as  delicate 
as  that  which  makes  the  charm  of  modern  lyric  and  romance. 
One  might  without  indignity  to  sacred  values  match  her 
melody  in  the  words  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney's  "Ditty":  ,, 

My  true-love  hath  my  heart,  and  I  have  his, 
By  just  exchange  one  for  another  given  ; 
I  hold  his  dear,  and  mine  he  cannot  miss. 
There  never  was  a  better  bargain  driven. 

Can  we  call  a  book  so  wrought  and  resolved,  though  quite 
oblivious  of  pious  or  allegorical  involvements,  unworthy  of 
a  place  in  holy  Scripture  ?  I  think  not.  T  think  that  for  its 
portrayal  of  Biblical  values  it  may  be  put  as  a  companion 
piece  to  A  Worthy  Woman  and  Our  Lady  Wisdom, 

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Bear  in  mind,  however,  that  we  are  deaHng  here  not  with 
a  developed  drama  but  with  a  strain  of  song,  a  lyric  cycle 
designed  not  to  be  declaimed  but  sung.    Its  scene 
and  Vocal       was  not  Staged  but  imagined  ;  if  read,  as  the  book 
Setting  came  to  be  at  the  Passover  season,  it  was  read 

in  the  distinctive  consciousness  of  the  song  magic  of  style. 
And  here  we  may  note  in  what  masterly  yet  delicate  way 
the  situation  we  have  conceived  is  set  forth  in  music.  On 
the  one  side  Solomon's,  the  would-be  bridegroom's,  appeal 
is  represented  by  two  choruses  :  a  palace  chorus  of  brides- 
maids, "daughters  of  Jerusalem"  (cf.  i,  5  ;  iii,  11),  singing 
sometimes  the  conventional  bridal  lays,  sometimes  antiph- 
onally  with  the  Shulammite  maiden,  and  a  male  chorus 
of  royal  retainers  coming  up  from  the  wilderness,  presum- 
ably the  bride's  country  home,  to  the  palace  where  she  is 
retained  and  where  the  wedding  is  to  be,  singing  her  charms 
in  the  king's  name  (cf.  iii,  7,  8  ;  vi,  12,  13).  All  the  splendid 
claims  of  court  and  harem  are  urged  on  this  side ;  one  is 
tempted  to  quote  in  parallel  Psalm  xlv,  10,  1 1  (called  by  title, 
"A  Song  of  Loves").  On  the  other  side  is  only  the 
Shulammite,  with  her  solo  voice,  virtually  captive,  homesick 
for  the  free  and  fruitful  country  of  her  birth,  lovesick  for 
her  absent  loved  one,  singing  her  yearnings  and  searchings 
for  him,  lapsing  into  dreamy  and  crooning  mood  as  of 
one  entranced,  and  guarding  her  personality  by  a  reiterated 
caveat  of  refrain, 

I  adjure  you,  O  daughters  of  Jerusalem, 
By  the  gazelles,  and  by  the  hinds  of  the  field. 
That  ye  awaken  not,  nor  stir  up  love. 
Until  it  please  ^  (ii,  7  ;  iii,  5  ;   viii,  4). 

But  it  is  in  her  song  that  one  finds  the  real  power  and  purity 
of  love,  and  it  prevails.  Compared  with  the  voluptuous  hint- 
ings  sung  by  the  daughters  of  Jerusalem  (i,  2-ii,  8  ;  vi,  4-9), 

1  Translation  of  the  Jewish  version,  1917.    The  translation  of  viii,  4, 
follows  more  correctly  the  reading  of  the  margin. 

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TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

and  the  sensuous  laudations  from  the  mascuhnity  of  Solo- 
mon's mighty  men  (iv,  1-15  ;  vii,  1-9),  her  tender  solo, 
so  full  of  the  sweet  call  of  the  springtide  (ii,  8-17)  and 
of  dreamy  longing  for  reunion  with  her  beloved  in  her 
mother's  house  (iii,  1-4;  v,  2-16;  vii,  lo-viii,  3),  seems 
to  penetrate  beneath  the  heated  artificialities  of  court  and 
harem  and  give  her  chaste  beauty  and  fidelity  a  power  "  ter- 
rible as  an  army  with  banners,"  before  which  the  amorous 
monarch  stands  abashed  (vi,  4,  5).     His  words, 

Turn  away  thine  eyes  from  me, 
For  they  make  me  afraid, 

read  like  a  confession  of  defeat.  Such  love  as  this  no  sen- 
suous or  worldly  allurements  can  either  waken  or  subdue. 
It  dwells  in  the  holiest  place  where  the  purest  passions  of 
the  inner  life  have  their  home.  Its  expression  is  beyond 
the  shows  of  the  stage  ;  it  is  open  only  to  the  music  and 
magic  of  song.  And  such  is  the  lyric  vehicle  of  this  first 
and  finest  book  of  the  five  Megilloth. 

Note.  It  may  aid  the  reader  in  verifying  or  otherwise  testing  the 
above-given  view  of  the  Song  of  Songs  if  we  note  here  the  stages,  or 
canticles,  in  which,  as  I  concei\-e,  the  cantata  progresses.  A  key  sentence 
is  given  with  each  one. 

Canticle  I  (Chapters  i,  2-iii,  5)  : 

The  king  hath  brought  me  into  his  chambers.  .  .  . 

I  am  black  though  comely, 

O  ye  daughters  of  Jerusalem,*.  .  . 

Look  not  upon  me. 

[Containing  the  Shulammite's  escape  in  dream  from  the  solicitations 
of  the  palace  to  the  freedom  of  home  and  beloved.] 

Canticle  II  (Chapters  iii,  6-v,  9) : 

Who  is  this  that  cometh  up  from  the  wilderness 
Like  pillars  of  smoke  ?  .  .  . 
Behold,  it  is  the  litter  of  Solomon ; 
Threescore  mighty  men  are  about  it. 

[Containing  the  Shulammite's  escape,  again  in  dream,  from  the  loud 
wooings  of  the  king  to  the  search  for  her  beloved.] 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Canticle  III  (Chapters  vi,  lo-viii,  4)  : 

Who  is  she  that  looketh  forth  as  the  morning, 
Fair  as  the  moon,  clear  as  the  sun. 
Terrible  as  an  army  with  banners  ? 

[Containing  the  Shulammite's  escape  from  the  chariots  of  Solomon's 
retinue  and  the  sword  dance  (vi,  i  3)  in  her  native  country,  with  the  final 
rebuke  to  the  pertinacious  pursuits  to  which  she  has  been  subjected :] 

I  adjure  you,  O  daughters  of  Jerusalem, 
Why  should  ye  awaken,  or  stir  up  love, 
Until  it  please  ?  1  (viii,  4). 

Canticle  IV  (Chapter  viii,  5-16) : 

Who  is  this  that  cometh  up  from  the  wilderness, 
Leaning  upon  her  beloved  ? 

[Containing  the  triumph  of  love,  in  various  settings  of  solo,  duet, 
and  chorus.] 

The  frank  sensuousness  of  the  Song  of  Songs,  so  uncon- 
genial to  the  ascetic  piety  of  the  sanctuary,  kept  it  long  from 
an  assured  place  in  the  Hebrew  canon  ;  but  at  length  the 
Synod  of  Jamnia,  a.d.  90,  gave  it  final  approval,  and  it 
became  so  great  a  favorite  that  about  a.d,  120  a  distin- 
guished rabbi  was  maintaining  of  it,  "  The  whole  world  does 
not  outweigh  the  day  when  the  Song  of  Songs  was  given 
to  Israel ;  while  all  the  Writitigs  are  holy,  the  song  is  holiest 
of  all."^  For  us  this  tribute  is  not  merely  to  the  excellence 
of  the  book  but  to  a  certain  inwardness  and  liberality  of  the 
Jewish  mind  which  we  do  not  -well  to  shut  out  from  our 
appreciation  of  its  Biblical  products. 

2.  From  the  springtime  song  of  awakened  love  (cf.  Song, 
ii,  8-14),  read  and  cherished  at  the  Passover  season,  we 
pass  to  the  old-time  story  of  Ruth,  which  was  read  at  Pente- 
cost when,  seven  weeks  after  the  Passover,  the  first  fruits 
of  the  harvest  were  presented  before  Jehovah.     We  have 

1  So,  according  to  the  more  accurate  Jewish  translation. 

2  McFadyen,  "  Introduction  to  the  Old  Testament,"  p.  282. 

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TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

already  considered  the  probable  time  and  occasion  of  its  com- 
position,^    It  was  viewed  there  as  a  gentle  appeal,  in  a  time 

„    .  of  stern  puritanism,  ai?ainst  the  rigors  of  racial  ex- 

Ruth:  Idyl  ^  ^  ^ 

of  Family       clusivcncss  and  as  a  liberal  hint  toward  the  freer 

Loyalty  and    origin  of  the  Davidic  house.   Such  immediate  con- 

Fidelity  °    . 

notation,  however,  must  needs  pass  with  the  mol- 
lifying influences  of  time  ;  but  the  idyl,  with  its  permanent 
loveliness  and  beauty,  remained  an  undying  classic.  As  such 
it  took  in  time  its  appropriate  and  unquestioned  place  in  this 
third  section  of  the  Hebrew  canon,  among  the  Megilloth, 
associated  with  the  common  felicities  of  family  and  indus- 
trial life.  With  the  translation  of  the  Old  Testament  into 
Greek,  however,  and  the  consequent  rearrangement  of  liter- 
ary estimates,  it  was  relegated  to  an  earlier  period,  where,  as 
in  our  Bible,  it  comes  just  after  the  Book  of  Judges.  Here 
too  it  works  its  gentle  influence,  as  we  read  the  Scripture 
in  historic  course,  furnishing  as  it  does  a  sweet  sense  of  the 
amenities  that  could  and  did  exist  in  the  crude  and  anarchic 
times  of  the  Judges,  when  as  yet '"  there  was  no  king  in  Israel ; 
every  man  did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes  "  (cf. 
Judg.  xxi,  25).  It  is  good  for  our  conception  of  those  rough 
times  and  deeds  to  have  this  humane  and  friendly  supple- 
ment to  our  sense  of  "  the  days  when  the  judges  judged  " 
(Ruth  i,  I).  From  a  too  prevailing  record  of  lawless  wrong 
one  turns  the  leaf  to  read  of  a  house  where  extreme  poverty 
is  not  abject  and  of  a  landed  estate  where  wealth  is  open- 
handed  and  kindly,  of  the  tender  affection  and  fidelity  of 
womanhood,  and  of  the  noble  chivalry  of  the  "'  next  of  kin  " 
(Heb.  go\'l)  whose  right  and  disposition  it  is  to  redeem  and 
protect  (cf,  Ruth  ii,  20;  iii,  9-iv,  12  with  Lev.  xxv,  25-27 
and  Job's  supreme  faith,  Job  xix,  25-27).  Thus  we  may  not 
unfitly  call  this  Book  of  Ruth  the  book  of  native  human 
kindliness,  the  book  wherein  are  recognized  ties  of  native 
goodness,  ties  deeper  than  land  or  creed  or  race. 

1  See  above,  pp.  417,  418. 
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3.  In  the  middle  of  the  yearly  round  of  festival  seasons 
came  the  sad  observance  of  a  national  fast  day,  the  fast  of 
Lamenta-  the  Ninth  of  Ab,  in  commemoration  of  the  burn- 
tions:  Eie-    jj^g  of  the  citv  and  temple  by  Nebuchadnezzar 

giacEchoof         ^^^.  ^^  ^     ^  ...    -^  ^        „         ,. 

Israel's  Sub-  (2  Kmgs  XXV,  8,  9  =  Jer.  hi,  12,  13).  On  this 
jugation  ^^y  ^y^g  j-g^^j  (-^g  Book  of  Lamentations,  a  series 
of  five  elegies  composed  in  the  kinaJi  measure,  and  included 
in  these  Megilloth  as  a  literary  heritage  from  a  time  not 
long  after  the  beginning  of  the  Chaldean  exile. 

Note.  The  kinah,  or  lament,  which  was  for  occasions  of  grief  what 
the  song  was  for  occasions  of  joy,  is  defined  above  (pp.  67,  68),  in  con- 
nection with  its  first  occurrence  in  Scripture,  when  David  sang  his  dirge 
over  the  deaths  of  Saul  and  Jonathan  (2  Sam.  i).  In  the  Book  of  Lamen- 
tations the  elegy  reaches  at  once  its  most  momentous  occasion  and  its 
most  finished  and,  as  it  were,  monumental  form. 

"The  Lamentations  of  Jeremiah"  is  the  title  that  we 
read  in  our  English  Bible,  in  both  the  Authorized  and  the 
Revised  version.  The  book  has  long  been  held  to  have 
been  written  by  the  prophet  Jeremiah  ;  naturally  enough, 
because  the  event  it  memorializes  occurred  in  his  day,  and 
because  much  of  his  prophecy  is  in  a  similar  strain.  In  the 
Greek  version,  accordingly,  these  lamentations  have  been 
transferred  from  their  place  in  the  Megilloth  to  the  pro- 
phetic section,  as  a  kind  of  appendix  to  the  Book  of  Jeremiah. 
In  the  original,  however,  they  are  not  marked  either  by  title 
(except  the  first  word,  'eikah,  "'  How  ")  or  by  attribution  of 
authorship.  They  cannot  be  confidently  ascribed  to  Jeremiah ; 
nor,  indeed,  as  we  compare  the  two  productions,  have  they 
anything  of  his  vehement  and  trenchant  style.  They  were 
read  or  chanted,  too,  in  quite  different  mood  from  that  which 
conditioned  his  prophecy. 

The  mood  that  governs  the  book,  in  fact,  is  not  invigor- 
ating. To  the  ordinary  reader  it  is  that  of  one  long 
monotone  of  sorrow,  almost  unrelieved  by  pointed  phrase 
or  progress  of  thought,  —  a  trait  so  insistent  as  to  provoke 

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TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

inquiry  after  its  cause.  I  think  we  may  find  this  in  its 
monumental  character.  The  five  elegies  of  which  it  is  made 
up  are,  in  a  word,  not  unlike  a  huge  epitaph, 
Work  of  marked  as  such  by  the  workmanship  of  the  verse. 
Hebrew  jj^js  ^oes  not  appear  —  only  the  level  monotony 

Verse-Craft  . 

of  it  appears  —  in  a  translation.  Four  of  the  five 
poems  (chapters  i  to  iv)  are  composed  acrostic-wise  in  the 
alphabetic  verse  which  was  deemed  the  perfection  of  poetic 
finish  and  artistry.^  They  are  like  cameo  work.  One  cannot 
but  judge,  however,  that  a  care  so  meticulous  for  verbal 
form  must  needs  be  taken  at  some  expense  to  the  urge  and 
passion  of  the  thought.  And,  indeed,  the  work  in  some  meas- 
ure bears  this  out.  It  is  all  in  one  minor  key ;  it  has  little 
rise  and  fall  of  emotion  or  ideal.  The  Book  of  Lamentations 
is  more  truly  a  work  of  poetic  verse-craft  moving  over  a  mod- 
erate range  of  feeling  than  of  poetic  fire  stirring  the  soul. 

Note.  The  reader  will  note  on  looking  over  the  book  that  each  of 
chapters  i,  ii,  iv,  and  v  consists  of  just  twenty-two  verses  —  the  number 
of  letters  in  the  Hebrew  alphabet  —  and  that  chapter  iii  has  sixty-six, 
just  three  times  that  number.  In  the  Hebrew  chapters  i,  ii,  and  iv 
maintain  the  acrostic  succession  by  the  first  word  of  each  verse  or 
stanza ;  chapter  v,  the  only  one  not  alphabetic,  has  the  same  number 
of  verses  in  the  stricter  and  briefer  mashal  couplet.  In  chapter  iii,  the 
most  highly  wrought  of  the  elegies  both  in  form  and  sentiment,  twenty- 
two  triplets  of  lines,  three  successive  lines  beginning  with  each  letter, 
make  up  the  sixty-six  verses.  Thus  in  this  third  and  central  book  of  the 
five  Megilloth  we  find  the  supreme  artistic  achievement  of  the  kinah  or 
elegiac  measure.  It  is  a  far  cry  from  the  strong  outburst  of  David's  dirge. 

We  would  not  leave  the  Lamentations,  however,  with  a 
note  of  disparagement.  The  care  for  finished  workmanship 
A  St  ■  f  ^^'^^  ^^^^  ^^^  instinctive  care  for  permanence,  for 
Undying  that  Consummate  style  which  is  the  antiseptic  of 
Patriotism  thought.  As  these  plaintive  elegies,  written  by 
a  poet  of  the  homeland  while  the  calamity  of  downfall  and 
dispersion  was  yet  young,  was  a  heartfelt  memorial  of  the 

1  For  alphabetic  poetry  in  the  Hebrew  literature,  see  above,  p.  446. 
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most  determining  event  of  Hebrew  history,  so  both  for 
inherent  worth  and  for  the  response  accorded  them  they 
proved  to  be,  as  they  still  are,  a  inoniivicutujii  acre  pcroinius. 
Read  from  the  ages  before  Christ  at  the  annual  fast  of  the 
fifth  month,  they  renewed  their  memorial  lament  after  the 
final  overthrow  of  the  Jewish  state  a.d.  70,  and  may  still 
be  heard  to-day,  as  crooned  or  chanted,  at  the  wailing-place 
by  the  Temple  wall  in  Jerusalem.  Thus,  with  their  pervad- 
ing note  of  resignation  and  devout  endurance,  they  are  a 
monument  to  the  extraordinary  tenacity  and  resiliency  of 
the  Jewish  character  in  its  devotion  to  the  land  and  faith  of 
the  fathers,  its  undying  patriotism  of  the  heart.  It  is  not 
seemly  to  despise  or  disparage  such  steadfastness  as  this, 
however  expressed. 

In  reading  these  plaintive  elegies  one  feels  the  pressure 
of  something  very  tender,  very  chastened,  very  noble.  Their 
note  of  submission  to  disaster  and  dispersion  in  a  spirit  so 
contrite,  so  acquiescent,  so  enduring,  above  all  in  such  forti- 
tude of  hope  (see  especially  iii,  19-31)  redeems  them  grandly 
from  the  morbidness  of  woe.  It  is  not  the  note  of  weak- 
ness but  of  resolute  recourse  to  the  Source  of  strength. 
A  nation  consciously  treading  the  Valley  of  Humiliation  is 
minded  not  to  make  grief  a  luxury  but  to  discover  its  mean- 
ing and  discipline.  The  concluding  petition  of  the  prayer 
which  constitutes  the  fifth  elegy, 

Turn  thou  us  unto  thee,  O  Jehovah,  and  we  shall  be  turned; 
Renew  our  days  as  of  old  (v,  21),* 

may  stand  as  the  keynote  to  which  the  whole  book,  with  its 
chastened  artistry  of  words,  is  tuned.  And  so  this  central 
roll  of  the  Megilloth,  hallowed  by  the  annual  fast  of  the 
ninth  of  Ab,  remains  to  all  time  as  the  elegiac  echo  of 
Israel's  most  searching  experience,  a  subjugation  which  did 
not  subjugate  but  refined. 

'  Repeated  as  a  colophon  at  the  end  of  the  Jewish  version. 
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4,  As  we  continue  to  read  these  Megilloth  in  their  allotted 
order  the  impression  grows  that  there  was  a  deeply  felt  con- 
nection in  each  case  between  the  sentiment  of 
EcclcsicLStcs  ' 
Ripened  Wis-  the  book  and  that  of  the  festival  season  at  which 

dom  of  Dis-  jj-  ^.^^  read.  We  know  this  was  so  with  two  of 
them,  Lamentations  and  Esther,  for  the  book  and 
the  observance  were  mutually  dependent.  Whether  it  was 
equally  so  with  the  others  raises  the  interesting  question 
what  the  old-time  feasts  really  meant  when  after  centuries 
of  laxity  or  discontinuance  they  became  an  organic  feature 
of  the  later  law  and  cultus.  With  this  question,  however, 
our  only  present  concern  is  as  to  its  literary  aspect.  And 
of  this  not  the  least  interesting  inquiry  is  as  to  the  possible 
connection  of  the  baffling,  estranging  Book  of  Ecclesiastes 
with  the  most  lucid  and  care-free  observance  of  the  year, 
the  Feast  of  Tabernacles.  The  latest  prophecy  associated 
this  feast  with  the  consummation  of  Israel's  holy  destiny 
(Zech.  xiv,  16-21)  ;  and  here  one  of  the  latest- written  books 
of  the  Old  Testament,  the  book  that  encountered  the  great- 
est difficulty  of  inclusion  in  the  Hebrew  canon,  seems  in 
superficial  impression  to  have  associated  all  human  wisdom 
and  labor,  this  crowning  season  included,  with  vanity  and 
disillusion.  What  can  a  fair  valuation  of  Biblical  literature 
say  to  this  .?  ^ 

We  are  working,  it  will  be  remembered,  in  that  stratum 
of    Biblical    truth   which   urges  no  claim,   as    do    law   and 
prophecy,  to  direct  revelation  from  Jehovah  ;   it 
Imputed         presupposes  rather  the  free  uprise  of  the  human 
Source  and     heart  and   mind   from   beneath.'^    We  are   in   a 
^^^  literary  period  also  when  things  were  written  and 

implicitly  accepted  in  the  name  and  imputed  influence  of 
great  personages  of  history.  We  have  seen  how  true  this 
was  in  Psalms  and  Proverbs  ;  how  David  and  Solomon  lived 

^  Question  answered  in  third  paragraph  below. 
2  See  above,  pp.  428,  429. 

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again  in  the  songs  and  maxims  that  somehow  emanated 
from  their  gifts  of  mind  and  heart.  David's  piety  became 
thus  the  dominant  spiritual  force  of  this  third  section  of  the 
canon  ;  but  for  the  secular  affairs  of  life  Solomon's  brilliancy 
and  versatility  were  a  close  second.  He  has  already  figured 
in  these  Megilloth,  in  connection  with  the  Song  of  Songs ; 
ages  later,  too,  his  name  is  potent  to  designate  ' '  The  Wis- 
dom of  Solomon,"  an  Apocryphal  book,  written  about 
lOO  B.C.,  and  "  Psalms  of  Solomon,"  written  close  on  the 
confines  of  the  Christian  era.^ 

It  is  by  an  assumed  name  that  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes 
is  attributed  to  Solomon,  —  a  virtual  intimation  that  the 
book  is  his  only  symbolically.  Its  title  is  "  Words  of  Kohe- 
leth,  Son  of  David,  King  in  Jerusalem,"  the  Hebrew  name 
Koheleth  being  represented  in  our  versions  by  its  Greek 
equivalent  "Ecclesiastes  "  and  translated  "  Preacher."  There 
is  nothing  in  the  book  in  the  least  ecclesiastical  or  clerical  — 
more  nearly  the  opposite,  rather  ;  nor,  indeed,  does  the  writer 
assume  the  role  either  of  Solomon  or  of  a  king  except  for 
two  chapters  (i,  ii)  merely  in  order  to  draw  proper  signifi- 
cance from  two  traditional  qualities  of  Solomon,  his  wisdom 
and  his  riches  (cf.  i  Kings  iii,  11-13;  iv,  29-34;  x,  23- 
27).  His  real  function  is  that  of  a  sage,  a  counselor  or 
teacher  of  the  people  (cf.  xii,  9,  10),  who  as  his  life's  busi- 
ness "  composed  and  compiled  and  arranged  many  lessons  "  ^ 
(mashals).  This  puts  his  work  in  the  class  of  Wisdom 
books,  a  distinction  which  it  shares  with  the  books  of  Prov- 
erbs and  Job, — the  three  making  up  a  characteristic  and 
homogeneous  body  of  didactic  literature  among  the  Scripture 
books.  It  is  as  a  body  of  sage  and  ripened  counsel  —  of 
a  wisdom  which  in  all  its  worldly  adventures  stayed  by  its 

1  See  above,  p.  85,  note. 

2  I  quote  here  my  own  translation,  takinp;  occasion  thereby  to  call  atten- 
tion to  a  book  of  mine,  "  Words  of  Koheleth  "  (Houghton  Mifflin  Com- 
pany, Boston). 

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TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

royal  practitioner  (ii,  9)  and  proved  its  diametric  contrast  to 
folly  (ii,  1 3)  ;  which  with  all  its  seeming  scorn  of  consist- 
ency yet  obtained  and  maintained  a  footing  in  that  most 
hospitable  of  books  the  Bible  —  that  we  are  called  upon  to 
estimate  this  Book  of  Ecclesiastes.  It  matches  Job's  bold- 
ness —  not  to  say  audacity  —  before  God  (cf .,  for  instance, 
Job  ix,  X,  xiii,  13-19)  with  an  equal  audacity  toward  the 
ongoings  of  the  world,  pronouncing  its  verdicts  unsparingly 
yet  with  a  sad  sincerity.  "  And  further,  because  the  Preacher 
was  wise,  he  still  taught  the  people  knowledge  "  (xii,  9). 
His  words,  cherished  as  a  roll  of  the  Megilloth,  became  the 
favorite  literary  entertainment  of  the  favorite  festal  season 
of  the  year. 

Recurring  to  this  curious  fact,  we  may  take,  I  think,  this 
Feast  of  Tabernacles,  as   it   came   to   be   observed   in   the 

,  -      .         matured  Judaism,  as  furnishing  in  a  wav  the  key 
Key  to  its  •'  i  1  '  r    1 

Attitude        to  its  attitude  and  spirit.    Read  at  the  close  of  the 

and  Spirit  harvest  season,  when,  as  it  were,  the  year's  account 
of  stock  was  taken  with  its  gains  and  its  ills,  the  book  also 
is  a  clear-eyed,  unsparing  account  of  the  stock  of  human 
life  "under  the  sun,"  —  its  profits  and  its  deficits,  or  at 
lowest  avails  its  salvages,  as  measured  not  by  prophetic  vision 
or  religious  emotion  but  by  matter-of-fact  reckoning  and 
common  sense.  Its  keynote,  as  I  hear  it,  is  not  its  abrupt 
exclamation  of  the  wholesale  vanity  of  things.  That  is  only 
its  postulated  and  presupposed  setting,  expressed  at  first,  it 
is  true,  with  the  one-sided  intensity  of  Oriental  style.  The 
real  keynote  and  ruling  idea  is  sounded  in  the  question  that 
immediately  follows,  "  What  profit  hath  man  of  all  his  labor 
wherein  he  laboreth  under  the  sun.?"  —  a  question  asked, 
as  one  can  see  from  its  calmer  repetition  (iii,  9),  not  so 
much  for  frantic  denial  as  for  honest  and  sober  answer.  The 
ground  term  of  the  book,  reverberating  in  every  inquiry, 
is  the  word  "profit"  (Heb.  j'zV/^/w/,  "surplusage,"  "resid- 
uum ")  ;  and  while  the  author  concedes  vanity  in  every  phase 

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and  pursuit  of  life,  he  does  this  rather  as  a  point  of  depar- 
ture than  as  a  point  of  approach.  Frankly  owning  all  that 
pessimism  or  materialism  may  urge,  his  virtual  inquiry  is, 
"What  of  it  ?  "  In  other  words,  his  concern  is  rather  for 
positive  avails  of  life,  however  great  or  small  these  may  be, 
than  for  leaving  life,  after  all  is  summed  up,  in  a  hopeless 
welter  of  negation.  It  is  simple  wisdom  to  take  account  of 
the  under  side  ;  it  is  candid  wisdom,  if  the  balance  sheet 
shows  only  meager  surplusage  or  salvage,  to  own  the  fact 
and  order  life  accordingly.  Such,  as  I  deem  it,  and  not  a 
too  hastily  imputed  pessimism,  is  the  constructive  aim  and 
spirit  of  this  Book  of  Ecclesiastes.     • 

This,  while  it  seems  to  reduce  human  life,  common  and 
privileged  alike,  as  by  a  vigorous  method  of  residues,  to 
plainest  and  as  it  were  business  terms,  yet  really  makes 
room  in  the  Biblical  inclosure  for  -the  modern  spirit  that 
seems  to  many  so  unbiblical,  the  spirit  of  science  and  intrepid 
progress  of  thought,  the  resolute  disposition  to  "  see  life 
steadily  and  see  it  whole."  In  this  respect  it  is  the  most 
modern  book  in  the  Bible,  the  favorite  of  what  timid  reli- 
gionists are  pleased  to  call  skeptical  and  froward  minds.  It 
faces  facts,  the  ugly  along  with  the  pleasant.  It  dispels,  not 
without  sadness,  the  illusions  that  the  too  fond  or  too  dis- 
cordant propensities  of  human  nature  engender.  It  is  not 
afraid  to  be  agnostic  about  some  things,  to  call  life  from  its 
point  of  view  a  bafifling  thing.  Here,  of  course,  we  must 
needs  reckon  with  its  prevailing  point  of  view.  We  have 
had  the  prophetic,  the  legalistic,  the  devotional,  —  prophet, 
priest,  and  king  have  contributed  their  quotas  to  Biblical 
truth.  This  is  the  matured  W^isdom  point  of  view,  from 
which  must  be  reckoned  both  avails  and  limitations.  Through 
this  book,  we  may  say,  is  admitted  into  the  tolerant  reposi- 
tory of  Scripture  the  most  practical,  most  nearly  adequate 
message  that  the  Wisdom  insight,  as  such,  could  vouchsafe 
to  man  in  his  dim  encounter  with  toil  and  time  and  chance. 

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TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

As  regards  what  may  be  called  its  structure,  the  Book  of 
Ecclesiastes  bears  the  marks  of  being  in  part  the  original 
Its  Survey  composition  of  the  author,  in  part  a  compilation 
and  Summa-  of  mashals  from  various  sources  loosely  arranged 
Problem  of  ^^  support  his  main  thesis,  —  thus  answering  to 
Life  the  author's  description  of  his  literary  method, 

xii,  9-1 1.  Written  for  the  most  part  in  a  rather  incisive 
prose,  it  rises  at  times,  and  especially  toward  the  end  (cf.  x, 
16,  onward),  into  a  somewhat  free  imitation  of  the  Solomonic 
mashal,  culminating  in  the  familiar  poem,  xi,  7  to  xii,  8, 
which  may  fitly  be  entitled  "Rejoice  and  Remember."  ^ 
Many  sayings  interspersed  through  the  book,  as  they  are 
unusually  epigrammatic  and  adage-like  (cf.,  for  instance,  the 
proverbs  about  fools,  ii,  14  ;  iv,  5  ;  vii,  5-7  ;  x,  i),  suggest 
that  the  author,  like  Solomon  before  him,  drew  for  illustra- 
tive material  on  current  maxims,  as  contributing  their  share 
to  an  all-round  survey  of  life. 

Beginning  with  a  short  proem,  or  introduction  (i,  2-1 1), 
in  which  he  states  his  negative  in  most  absolute  terms,  the 
sage  Ecclesiastes,  in  his  quest  for  residuum  {yitJiron),  as- 
sumes the  mind  of  King  Solomon,  the  traditional  type  of 
wisdom  and  wealth,  long  enough  (i,  12-ii,  26)  to  get  the 
monarch's  supposed  verdict  on  the  yields  of  life  at  its  best ; 
after  which,  no  longer  in  kingly  role,  he  goes  on  in  amplifi- 
cation to  survey  the  depths  and  shoals  of  human  labor  and 
experience  under  the  sun.  Two  things  seem  to  have  proved 
too  much  for  the  sage-king's  power  to  solve  :  the  emptiness 
of  all  that  wealth  and  wisdom  can  give,  and  the  stark  equality 
of  wise  and  fool  alike  in  death  (cf.  ii,  12-17)  ;  so  from  his 
royal  height  he  is  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  "  there  is 
nothing  better  for  a  man  than  that  he  should  eat  and  drink 
and  make  his  soul  enjoy  good  in  his  labor  "  (ii,  24).  But 
this  is  already  a  residuum,  a  thing  worth  while  —  or,  as  he 
says,  "from  the  hand  of  God"  ;  and  as  the  sage  goes  on 

^  As  in  my  "  Words  of  Koheleth,"  p.  345. 
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following  out  in  detail  the  same  two  enigmas  that  perplexed 
the  king,  it  reappears  in  enhanced  cheer  and  climax,  as 
a  foil  to  the  successive  bafflements  brought  to  view  (see  iii, 
12,  13  ;  V,  18-20;  ix,  7-10);  and  at  the  "end  of  the  mat- 
ter," when  "all  hath  been  heard,"  the  various  counsels  of 
heartenment  are  condensed  into  the  sound  and  tried  prin- 
ciple of  earthly  Wisdom,  "  Fear  God,  and  keep  his  com- 
mandments ;  for  this  is  the  whole  man"  (xii,  13).^  Thus 
this  Book  of  Ecclesiastes,  for  all  its  sad  sense  of  vanity  and 
disillusion,  is  on  the  whole  constructive.  If  not  optimistic 
—  its  plane  and  era  before  life  and  immortality  came  to  light 
would  not  let  it  be  that  —  it  is  at  least  melioristic.  It  has 
sought  the  more  livable  alternative  in  a  hard  and  crooked 
world,  and  found  it. 

Yet  along  with  this  body  of  wise  counsel  there  still  re- 
mains a  clinging  sense  of  unfinality,  of  limitation.  The  sage 
breaks  off  some  of  his  most  penetrative  findings  to  exclaim, 
"  All  this  have  I  tried  by  wisdom  ;  I  said,  "  Oh,  let  me  be 
wise !  '  —  and  it  was  far  from  me.  Far  off,  that  which  is  ; 
and  deep,  deep  —  who  shall  find  it.?"  (vii,  23,  24).^  He 
has  been  pursuing  different  lines  of  thought  from  those  laid 
out  by  prophets  and  priests. ,  Prophetic  vision  has  long  sub- 
sided (cf.  Psa,  Ixxiv,  9).  The  name  of  Jehovah,  the  God 
Who  Is,^  always  in  the  mouth  of  priests,  does  not  occur 
in  his  book.  To  be  uncertain  about  Him  who  Is,  is  to  be 
baffled  by  the  involvements  of  That  which  is.  One  notes 
the  same  uncertainty  in  the  plebeian  words  of  Agur  (cf. 
Prov.  XXX,  2-4).  Our  book  is  in  fact  the  utterance  of  a  dis- 
tinctively human  wisdom,  human  insight,  in  that  stratum  of 
Hebrew  thought  which  ignores  transcendental  knowledge 
or  disclosure."*    Its   ripened  utterance,  sad  and   sincere,  is 

1  Cf.  above,  p.  450. 

2  I  quote  here  my  own  rendering,  see  my '"  Words  of  Koheleth,"  p.  300. 

3  Cf.  above,  pp.  47-50. 

^  The  passage  just  quoted  is  a  virtual  denial  of  thushiyah. 

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TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

indeed  the  Wisdom  of  disillusion,  and  as  such  the  chill  of 
unfinality  and  limitation  is  upon  it.  It  marks  a  point  where 
Scripture  must  pause  for  new  light  and  power. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes  as  in  the  class 
with  Proverbs  and  Job.^  Its  thought  structure  has  in  effect 
.    „      ,  .     so  intimate  a  relation  to  that  of  the  other  books 

As  Correlate 

with  Prov-  that  we  may  regard  the  three  as  making  up 
erbs  and  Job  together,  whether  so  intended  or  not,  a  kind  of 
trilogy,  in  which  Hebrew  Wisdom  is  set  forth  in  ordered 
and  progressive  utterance,  making  thus  a  distinctive  strain 
of  Scripture  truth,  a  strain  wrought  out  to  a  clear  and  candid 
sense  of  its  values,  its  trend,  its  limits.  And  this  is  done 
not  by  reducing  Wisdom  to  a  philosophy  but  by  putting  its 
ideals  and  theories  to  successive  tests  of  personal  experience. 

Let  us  note  in  brief  outline  how  this  is. 

It  all  centers  round  the  idea  of  success  or  failure.  The 
Book  of  Proverbs  —  miscellaneous  maxims  of  conduct 
brought  together  by  sages  and  impressed  by  the  allegorical 
Lady  Wisdom  —  resolves  itself  into  a  practical  manual  of 
success.  In  other  words,  its  precepts  one  and  all  make  for 
one  comprehensive  end,  reward,  —  by  which  we  mean  the 
gains,  the  wages,  the  profits  of  wise  and  reverent  living, 
as  expressed  in  terms  of  wealth,  welfare,  honor,  health, 
family,  long  life,  a  peaceful  death.  To  this  end  it  summons 
the  sagacity,  the  prudence,  the  piety,  the  teachableness,  not 
excluding  the  cleverness  a/id  watchful  shrewdness,  of  the 
well-endowed  man  ;  in  fact  it  is  a  call  to  the  efficient  man- 
agement of  life  on  high  but  essentially  self-regarding  prin- 
ciples. With  all  this  the  Book  of  Proverbs  sets  itself  to 
deal,  and  its  promise  of  reward,  as  also  its  threat  of  failure, 
is  firm  and  absolute. 

At  this  point  of  the  trilogy  the  author  of  the  Book  of 
Job  takes  up  the  theme.  He  does  not  dispute  results  or 
conditions ;  these  are  sound  and  sure  ;  rather  he  institutes 

1  Cf.  above,  p.  49S. 
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a  deeper  inquiry.  It  is  as  if  he  had  said  to  his  heart,  The 
reward  is  all  right,  what  of  the  man  ?  what  has  personal 
experience  to  say  ?  In  answer  ne  brings  from  the  familiar 
traditions  of  the  past  a  man  perfect  and  upright,  who  has 
earned  and  in  fullest  measure  enjoyed  the  material  rewards 
of  earthly  life  and  then  in  one  swift,  unmotived  catastrophe 
lost  them.  There  was  nothing  left  him  to  show  for  a  well- 
spent  and  godly  life.  The  Book  of  Job,  as  its  contribution 
to  the  growing  trilogy,  tells  the  sequel.  Job's  steadfast  con- 
sistency, in  integrity  and  heart-loyalty,  proved  that  the  hope 
of  reward  is  not  the  determining  motive  of  sterling  manhood. 
There  is  a  fealty  to  God  and  truth  which  is  independent  of 
work  and  wage  or  of  godliness  and  gain.^ 

As  Wisdom  lore  becomes  still  more  seasoned  and  dis- 
criminating the  sage  Ecclesiastes  at  length  takes  up  the 
theme  by  a  new  grounding  of  the  test  question.  No  dis- 
paragement to  Wisdom  ;  it  is  still  the  polar  opposite  to 
folly ;  but  it  is  as  if  he  had  asked  his  heart,  What  is  that 
thing  reward,  after  all }  what  the  profit  ?  To  get  at  the 
answer  he,  like  his  predecessor,  draws  on  the  personal  ex- 
perience of  the  past.  He  assumes  the  mind  of  the  most 
admired  personage  of  Hebrew  history,  King  Solomon,  who 
with  his  superb  gifts  of  wealth  and  wisdom  has  all  the  rewards 
that  heart  could  wish  and  all  the  ability  to  appraise  them. 
If  he  cannot  tellwhat  life  is  worth,  in  pay  and  profit,  no 
one  can.  And  his  verdict  on  it. all  is  "Vanity  of  vanities." 
Ecclesiastes  carries  on  his  inquiries,-  descending  from  the 
kingly  station  to  the  laborer's,  the  common  man's.  And 
everywhere  he  finds  the  same  flat  level  of  prospect,  the  same 
famine  of  surplusage.  "'  All  the  labor  of  man  is  for  his 
mouth,  yet  also  is  the  soul  not  filled  "  (vi,  7),  such  is  one 
of  his  sad  confessions.  That  thing  reward  is  not  of  the  life, 
but  extrinsic,  exotic,  a  thing  outside.  Life  itself  is  an  ultir 
mate  fact.    It  has  no  equivalent ;  it  will  accept  no  substitute. 

^  Cf.  summary,  "  Epic  of  the  Inner  Life,"  p.  20. 
[S°4] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

It  must  be  its  own  reward  and  blessedness,  or  nothing.^ 
Nothing  for  it  then  but  to  fall  back  upon  the  life  itself, 
with  its  goods  and  ills,  making  it  fair  and  faithful  in  the 
fear  of  God. 

Thus  in  his  correlation  with  the  other  books,  which  corre- 
lation from  this  view  seems  like  a  thing  designed,  the  sage 
Ecclesiastes  rounds  out  the  symmetrical  body  of  Wisdom 
literature,  ending  it  essentially  where  it  began.  But  not  as 
it  began.  A  great  sense  of  values  and  safeguards  and  limits 
has  supervened.  Much  has  been  gained  to  its  unbiased 
surveys  of  life  ;  nothing  lost.  And  if  it  must  come  out  on 
a  great  negative,  it  is  something,  it  is  much,  to  have  emerged 
to  a  great  sense  of  need.    The  modern  poet's  words, 

'T  is  life,  whereof  our  nerves  are  scant, 
Oh  life,  not  death,  for  which  we  pant ; 
More  life,  and  fuller,  that  I  want, 

seem  fitly  to  embody  the  spiritual  surge  and  urge  of  our 
sage's  quest.  And  if  in  his  dim  day  it  seems  far  and  futile, 
yet  unsurmised  by  him  a  day  is  soon  to  come  when  a  Greater 
than  earthly  sage  will  say,  "  I  came  that  they  may  have  life, 
and  may  have  it  abundantly "  {perisson,  "  in  overflow," 
John  X,  lo).    The  real  reward,  the  Xxw^ yithron,  will  not  fail. 

5.  With  the  Book  of  Esther,  the  fifth  of  the  Megilloth 

or  little  classics,  is  associated  the  Feast  of  Purim,  or  Lots, 

not  so  much  a  religious  observance  as  an  annual 

manceofthe   merrymaking  (cf.  Esth.  ix,  19,  22),  instituted  es- 

Lot  that         pecially  by  and  for  the  Jews  of  the   dispersion 

Failed  ,    r    •  x     •  •  r     1         i    i- 

(ci.  IV,  3)  m  commemoration  01  the  deliverance 
narrated  in  the  book.  To  call  the  book  a  romance  is  not 
to  imply  that  it  is  unhistorical.  A  critical  episode  of  the 
Rersian  period  may  well  have  underlain  the  story  and  its 
memorial ;  though  in  some  ways  the  situation,  of  which  this 
is  the  only  record,  is  hard  to  reconcile  with  what  is  known 

1  Cf.  my  "Words  of  Kohelcth,"  p.  212. 

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of  Persian  history  ;  some  incidents,  too,  are  hard  to  fit  with 
the  ways  of  an  Oriental  court.  It  was,  however,  as  essen- 
tially a  romance,  a  stor)'  masterfully  told  and  colored,  that 
the  Book  of  Esther  had  access  and  power  among  the  Jew- 
ish people.  As  such  it  is  a  notable  and  characteristic 
product  of  the  later  Hebrew  literature. 

Note.  We  have  already,  in  connection  with  the  Book  of  Daniel, 
touched  upon  the  vogue  of  the  historical  tale  and  of  historical  fiction  in 
general :  see  above,  pp.  280,  281.  It  seems  to  have  belonged  to  the  like 
species  as  the  7}iid)iuh  (cf.  above,  pp.  407  note.  419);  was  perhaps  a 
more  flexible  and  less  didactic  development  of  it. 

One  of  the  first  noteworthy  things  that  the  attentive 
reader  of  Esther  feels  is  its  atmosphere,  "that  emotional 
,     .  and  social  fluid  which  holds  the  separate  social 

Its  Atmos-  ^_  .       ^ 

phere  and  atoms  in  solution,"  and  which  in  this  case  is 
Ammus  peculiar.  The  feeling  rises  as  soon  as  he  has 
passed  the  introductory  stage  (i,  ii),  which  has  prepared  for 
the  action,  and  read  of  the  promotion  of  "  Haman  the  son 
of  Hammadatha  the  Agagite  "  to  the  post  of  prime  minister 
of  the  realm  (iii,  i).  From  this  point  onward,  by  means  of 
a  double  narrative  plot  —  two  stories  merged  eventually  into 
one  —  our  stor}'  resolves  itself  into  the  account  of  a  bitter 
feud  between  Haman  and  Mordecai,  breaking  into  scheme 
and  counter  scheme  as  soon  as  Haman  discovered  that  Mor- 
decai  was  a  Jew  (iii,  4).  The  word  "Agagite  "  (  =  Amalekite) 
explains  the  case.  The  two  men  were  representative  of  two 
races,  Amalek  and  Israel,  which  from  remote  times  had 
been  deadly  foes.  It  was  Amalek  who  as  the  first  opponent 
fought  Israel  in  Rephidim  (Exod,  xvii,  8-16),  against  whom 
Moses  made  a  special  decree  of  extermination  (Deut.  xxv, 
17-19),  and  whose  king  Agag,  Haman's  lineal  ancestor, 
was  hewn  in  pieces  by  Samuel  (i  Sam.  xv,  32,  33).  A  racial 
antipathy,  like  a  malign  instinct,  had  always  existed  between 
the  two  nations,  and  Haman  seized  the  opportunity  of  power 
on  his  part  to  glut  it.    The  feeling  of  this  on  the  part  of 

[506] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

the  Hebrews  is  what  gives  rise  to  the  unusual  atmosphere 
that  pervades  our  story, ^  making  it  in  some  ways  so  unbibH- 
cal,  —  an  atmosphere  not  rehgious  nor  tolerant,  hardly  even 
moral,  but  purely  racial.  The  Book  of  Esther  is  a  story  of 
racial  crisis  and  fortune,  narrated  in  the  spirit  not  of  psalm- 
ist and  prophet  but  of  sheer  race  reaction,  as  if  the  long 
dispersion  had  caused  a  reversion  to  this.  One  feels  here 
also  the  pride,  the  solidarity,  the  exclusiveness  of  this  unique 
Jewish  race  ;  and  these  qualities,  though  admirable,  engender 
an  unlovely  animus  and  attitude  which  even  the  splendid 
heroism  and  self-abnegation  of  Esther  rather  accentuates 
than  softens.  In  fine,  the  Book  of  Esther,  for  all  its  noble 
features,  has  to  be  read  with  a  certain  spiritual  reservation 
and  allowance. 

The  consideration  of  atmosphere,  however,  gets  us  only 
a  little  way  toward  the  heart  of  the  book  ;  it  was  not  this 
Its  Rationale  ^^^^  "^^^^  deeply  caused  the  rejoicing  of  the 
of  Tone  and  Feast  of  Purim,  the  memorial  of  the  lot  that 
Form  failed.    It  was  evidently  in  this  lot  and  its  sequel 

that  the  Jews  found  their  hope  and  cheer.  Haman,  ponder- 
ing his  plot  of  exterminating  the  Jews,  had  the  lot  cast 
before  him  twelve  times,  month  by  month,  before  he  dared 
undertake  a  thing  so  atrocious  (iii,  7;  ix,  24-26).  It  was 
the  appeal  of  heathen  superstition  to  the  occult  powers  of 
Fortune  and  Destiny  (cf.  Isa.  Ixv,  11);  and  one  may  imagine 
that  the  twelve  lucky  casts,  one  so  uniformly  after  the  other, 
had  on  his  gambling  mind  a  good  deal  the  effect  of  miracle 
—  or  perhaps  of  having  got  the  combination  that  would 
break  the  bank.  It  was  as  if  his  superstitious  appeal  to 
chance  had  somehow  got  behind  chance  to  some  mystic 
decree.  He  had  obtained  the  warrant  for  a  spiteful  and 
inhuman  act.  So  he  bore  his  weight  upon  his  lot,  and 
appointed  the  date  of  execution  (iii,  13). 

1  A  pervading  atmosphere  has  already  been  noted  in  connection  with 
the  dominance  of  legalism ;  see  above,  p.  387. 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Here  then  comes  in  the  story  of  the  lot  that  failed  and 
its  effect  on  the  Jewish  mind.  Events  came  out  the  other 
way,  and  so  marvelously  that  to  the  Jews  in  their  turn  the 
reversal  must  have  been  equivalent  to  miracle.  It  was  just 
the  kind  of  happening  that  thinking  people  are  wont,  when 
they  can  look  back  upon  it,  to  ascribe  to  divine  purpose  and 
agency.  Nor  was  such  ascription  foreign  to  their  habits  of 
thought.  Many  events  of  less  moment  throughout  Jewish 
history  had  been  deemed  miraculous  ;  the  lot  had  often  been 
appealed  to  and  trusted  in  ;  a  distinctive  trait  of  the  national 
mind  was  implicit  belief  in  and  looking  for  the  immediate 
interposition  of  God  in  human  affairs.  "  Jews  ask  for  signs  " 
(I  Cor.  i,  22)  was  St.  Paul's  characterization  of  his  people. 
In  this  deliverance,  however,  was  something  that  gambling 
could  not  determine.  It  was  beyond  the  sphere  of  luck  or 
unmotived  chance,  —  a  new  proof,  even  for  a  scattered  and 
subject  people,  that  "  no  weapon  that  is  formed  against  thee 
shall  prosper"  (cf.  Isa.  liv,  17).  As  such  the  wonderful 
reversal  of  outcome  was  as  impressive,  it  meant  as  much, 
as  miracle. 

But  how  shall  this  be  told,  — -  with  what  presupposition, 
what  coloring }  We  meet  here  a  question  not  merely  of  the 
Jews'  religious  faith  but  of  fitting  literary  tone  and  form. 
To  relate  the  story  in  terms  of  the  Hebrew  recognition  of 
miracle  would  be  virtually  to  match  one  occult  mystery  with 
another,  as  if  a  plot  supported  by  capricious  omens  were  to 
be  met  and  foiled  by  an  equally  capricious  (/ms  ex  macJiina. 
Such  was  not  the  way  of  the  school  in  which  the  Jews  had 
been  reared.  They  had  learned  —  it  was  in  their  blood  and 
race  —  to  identify  Jehovah's  work  not  by  gambling  but  by 
the  insight  of  reason  and  motive.  He  had  always  brought 
His  dealings  with  men  and  their  reasons  out  into  the  open, 
where  they  could  be  so  mingled  with  fact  and  with  the  straight 
human  mind  that  His  presence  therein  could  be  taken  for 
granted.    This,  I  think,  explains  tlie  purely  secular  idiom  of 

. [ 508  j 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

the  Book  of  Esther,  which  is  thought  by  some  to  lower  its 
tone  among  Scripture  writings.  It-  is  in  fact  the  idiom  of 
truest  answer  to  the  superstition  of  lot  and  luck.  Accord- 
ingly, the  writer  has  chosen  to  narrate  his  story  in  terms  of 
plain  event  and  circumstance,  ignoring,  perhaps  purposely 
avoiding,  religious  or  occult  values,  thereby  making  the  fail- 
ure of  the  lot  stand  out  more  palpable.  The  moving  details 
of  romance  too,  the  remarkable  circumstantiality  with  which 
he  has  interwoven  cause  and  consequence,  hap  and  coincidence, 
—  quite  as  in  modern  story-craft,  —  are  rather  a  virtue  than 
a  redundance  ;  they  show  not  only  on  what  apparent  acci- 
dents events  may  turn  but  how  truly  these  belong  with  -the 
rest  in  an  interdependent  chain.  It  is  a  reduction  from  the 
fortuitous  to  the.  normal. 

The  J5ook  of  Esther,  with  its  story  of  the  beautiful  queen 
who  by  her  heroism  made  common  cause  with  her  imperiled 
Its  Right  to  people  and  by  her  cleverness  saved  them,  became 
Bible  Grade  extremely  popular  in  Jewish  social  life;  its  stim- 
ulus to  Purim  shows  that.  Among  the  five  Megilloth,  indeed, 
it  came  in  time  to  be  reckoned  as  the  Roll  par  excellence. 
Among  the  more  scrupulous  and  devout,  however,  there  was 
much  debate,  and  long,  concerning  its  right  to  place  and  rank 
in  a  sacred  canon.  What  we  have  noted  of  its  tone  and 
form  will  explain  why.  Its  tone  was  not  at  all  sacred.  Its 
Purim  memorial  —  a  social  merrymaking  —  did  not  pro- 
mote piety,  was  not  Mosaic.  The  fact  was  noted  also  and 
grieved  over  that  in  all  the  book,  the  name  of  the  Deity  did 
not  once  occur,  nor  any  sign  of  worship.  Plainly  its  whole 
tissue  was  of  the  world,  not  of  the  Bible. 

A  sentence  from  the  heart  of  the  crisis,-  however,  puts 
a  different  coloring  upon  the  matter.  When  Mordecai  is 
imploring  Esther  to  take  up  her  race's  cause,  his  plea  is, 
'"  For  if  thou  altogether  boldest  thy  peace  at  this  time,  then 
will  relief  and  deliverance  arise  to  the  Jews  from  another 
place,  but  thou  and  thy  father's  house  will  perish  :  and  who 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

knoweth  whether  thou  art  not  come  to  the  kingdom  for  such 
a  time  as  this?"  (iv,  14).  What  "other  place"  could  he 
have  meant  ?  Here,  as  it  would  seem,  was  a  real  though 
reticent  recognition  —  the  Jews  became  reticent  in  their  dis- 
persion—  of  that  "high  and  holy  place"  (cf.  Isa.  Ivii,  15) 
toward  which  the  Hebrew  heart  and  hope  alwa)-s  turned, 
that  unseen  realm  where  dwelt  the  Power  and  Purpose  of 
eternity.  In  other  words,  it  was  an  expression  of  trust  in 
what  we  with  like  reticence  and  indirectness  call  Providence  ; 
and  it  is  followed  by  a  heroic  committal  to  it  as  a  forestalling 
agency.  This  strikes  the  true  Scripture  note.  Esther's 
resolve,  "and  so  will  I  go  in  unto  the  king,  which  is  not 
according  to  the  law;  and  if  I  perish,  I  perish"  (iv,  15), 
is  a  faith,  not  a  gamble,  a  venture  made  sacred  by  fasting, 
not  by  superstition  ;  and  it  prevails.  And  this  it  does  not 
by  occult  means  but  by  the  steady  and  traceable  ongoings 
of  event  and  circumstance.  The  whole  book,  in  this  light, 
resolves  itself  into  an  account  of  the  victory  of  Providence 
over  luck,  —  the  faith  that  succeeded  over  the  lot  that  failed. 
To  this  end  its  interwoven  wealth  of  detail,  in  the  profane 
world's  intelligible  dialect,  is  not  its  blemish  but  its  supreme 
fitness.  For  it  shows  how  all  the  elements  of  life,  designed 
and  casual,  effect  and  coincidence,  coming  as  it  were  out  of 
the  natural  order  of  things,  shaped  themselves  into  relief 
and  deliverance.  To  have  set  this  forth,  though  no  divine 
name  or  trait  be  applied  to  it,  is  to  have  earned  a  merited 
rank  in  Scripture  standards  and  values.  To  deny  this  is  to 
put  one's  personal  judgment  above  that  of  the  Bible. 

IV.  On  the  Literary  Frontier 

With  the  last  of  the  five  Megilloth  the  "  Treasury  of  the 
Choice  Hebrew  Classics,"  as  such,  may  be  deemed  virtually 
complete.  Several  books  are  still  comprised  in  this  third 
division  of  the  canon,  one  of  them  at  least  of  great  literary 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

import.  These  seem,  however,  to  have  been  added  as  later- 
coming  works  belonging  essentially  to  another  class.  They 
have  already  been  considered  at  length  with  reference  to  their 
subject  matter ;  it  remains  to  glance  at  them  again  with 
reference  to  their  reception  and  significance  when  written. 
They  may  be  viewed  as  standing  on  the  literary  frontier  of 
the  Old  Testament,  rounding  out  the  canon  of  sacred  writings 
which  "  the  people  of  a  book  "  had  for  generations  been 
compiling  from  their  ancient  literary  heritage. 


The  Visioned  and  the  Settled.  Contemplating  these  added 
books  in  their  supplemental  character  as  closing  the  canon, 
one  may  regard  them  as  dealing  respectively  with  the  Jew- 
ish hope  and  the  Jewish  record.  It  is  as  if  the  collectors 
were  minded  to  place  here  at  the  end,  in  a  kind  of  resume, 
the  permanent  Jewish  idea,  as  related  to  future  and  past ; 
an  idea  in  which  "  the  habitual  expectancy  of  the  Jewish 
people  "  and  the  historical  grounds  on  which  that  expect- 
ancy was  based  should  not  fail  of  adequate  expression.  This 
is  indicated  in  the  one  direction  by  the  Book  of  Daniel,  in 
which  the  undying  hope  of  Judaism  is  set  forth  in  vision, 
and  in  the  other  by  what  we  have  called  the  later  cultus 
literature,  the  books  of  Ezra-Nehemiah  (originally  regarded 
as  one  book)  and  the  Chronicles,  a  history  readjusted  to  the 
reorganized  Jewish  state. 

To  the  study  that  we  have  already  devoted  to  these  let 
us  note  in  addition  what  values  come  from  the  fact  that 
they  function  so  late  in  the  Hebrew  canon. 

The  date  at  which  by  the  most  probable  indications  the 
Book  of  Daniel  ^  seems  to  have  been  written,  namely,  about 
i68b.c.,  falls  in  the  midst  of  the  gravest  crisis  that  the 
Jewish  cause  ever  underwent.    The  story  of  this,  and  of  the 

1  For  the  study  of  Daniel  in  the  historical  light,  as  "  Mage  and  Revealer 
at  Court,"  see  above,  pp.  278-300. 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

victorious  weathering  of  it  under  Judas  Maccabaeus  and  his 
brothers,  is  told  in  the  apocryphal  books  of  the  Maccabees. 
Daniel's  It  was  the  crisis  that  under  the  fanatical  king 
Apocalyptic  Antiochus  IV,  Epiphanes,  befell  not  the  Jewish 
and*Reckon-  State  only,  but  the  Jewish  religion  and  cultus. 
i°g8  Its  significance  was  more  than  political  or  reli- 

gious. It  was  in  fact  the  first  sharp  onset  of  a  conflict  bound 
to  come  and  continue  between  what  modern  thought  calls 
Hebraism  and  Hellenism,  the  Jewish  mind  and  the  Greek 
mind  facing  the  demands  of  the  inner  life.  As  such  its 
outcome  could  be  portrayed  only  apocalyptically. 

Note.  It  is  not  in  our  scope,  as  it  is  not  in  the  scope  of  the  canon, 
to  dwell  on  the  details  of  this  Maccabaean  crisis.  It  was  in  brief  the 
attempt  to  impose  a  foreign  culture  on  a  nation  that  by  the  laxity  and 
venality  of  its  leading  classes  and  their  heedless  apes  seemed  superficially 
ripe  for  it.  A  table  of  its  events,  from  the  accession  of  Antiochus  in 
176  B.  c.  to  his  death  in  165,  with  Scriptural  and  historical  references, 
is  given  in  Driver,  "Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment," p.  491  (Revised  ed.).  The  darkest  period,  to  which  Daniel's 
allusions  seem  most  closely  related,  may  here  be  described  in  the 
words  of  Professor  Cornill.^ 

"  And  now  (namely,  after  "  the  whole  city  was  plundered,  its  walls 
razed,  and  a  Syrian  garrison  put  into  the  city  ")  Antiochus  considered 
the  occasion  ripe  for  a  master  stroke.  On  the  27th  of  October,  168  B.C., 
he  issued  the  insane  decree  which  was  intended  to  exterminate  Judaism 
root  and  branch.  All  the  sacred  writings  of  the  Jews  were  to  be  delivered 
up  and  destroyed,  the  exercise  of  the  Jewish  religion  was  forbidden  on 
pain  of  death,  all  the  Jews  were  to  sacrifice  to  the  Greek  gods,  and  the 
temple  at  Jerusalem  was  to  become  a  sanctuary  of  Olympian  Zeus.  The 
abomination  of  desolation  ^  was  actually  established  in  the  sacred  place, 
and  on  the  25th  of  December,  16S  n.  c,  the  first  sacrifice  was  offered 
there  to  Zeus  —  whether  by  the  high  priest  Menclaus  we  do  not  know. 
The  commands  of  the  king  were  executed  with  unexampled  severity,  and 
the  subordinate  functionaries  of  authority  evidently  took  fiendish  delight 
in  harassing  and  tormenting  in  every  imaginable  way  the  Jews  who  were 
loyal  to  the  law." 

1  Cornill,  "  History  of  the  People  of  Israel,"  pp.  191,  192. 
^  Cf.  Dan.  ix,  27  ;  xi,  31  ;  xii,  1 1  ;   Matt,  xxiv,  15. 

[512] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

In  our  previous  study  of  Daniel  ^  we  have  noted  how  his 
four  visions,  beginning  with  the  dream-vision  of  chapter  vii, 
becoming  increasingly  specific  and  literal  as  they 
Book  Fits  succeed  one  another,  and  accompanied  with  vari- 
the  Time  ^^^  reckonings  of  times,  all  concentrate  themselves 
on  a  time  marked  by  the  ruthless  reign  of  "  a  king  of  fierce 
countenance  and  understanding  dark  sentences  "  (cf.  viii,  23), 
and  by  "the  transgression"  (viii,  13)  or  "abomination  that 
maketh  desolate"  (xi,  31).  This  is  in  fact  the  nodal  point 
of  the  Book  of  Daniel.  How  enheartening  the  designation 
of  it  in  such  transcendent  terms  must  have  been  to  the 
sorely  tried  faithful  among  the  Jews  needs  no  affirmation. 
To  know  that  this  very  crisis,  predicted  and  calculated  by  a 
renowned  mage  of  the  old  time,  would  also  pass,  as  it  were 
a  mere  episode  in  their  larger  destiny,  was  equivalent  to  a 
spiritual  revival  and  deliverance.  The  pious  conditions  of 
the  story,  too,  had  their  effect.  In  the  Maccabean  history, 
written  some  sixty-five  years  later,  the  priest  Mattathias,  who 
had  started  the  Maccabaean  revolt,  is  represented  as  saying 
in  his  death-bed  address  to  his  sons,  "  Hananiah,  Azariah, 
Mishael,  believed,  and  were  saved  out  of  the  flame  ;  Daniel 
for  his  innocency  was  delivered  from  the  mouth  of  lions  " 
(i  Mace,  ii,  59,  60).  "No  book  of  Scripture  ever  had  a  more 
immediate  appeal  to  its  time. 

But  Daniel  is  emphatically  a  book  not  for  a  time  but  for 
all  time  —  for  eternity.  From  the  beginning  of  its  visions 
The  Larger  ^^'^  presages  it  overflows  its,  Maccabaean  episode. 
Objective  — treating  this,  indeed,  only  as  an  obstacle  to 
be  overcome  in  the  majestic  march  of  disclosure  toward 
a  larger  objective.  Its  revelations,  first  broached  through 
Nebuchadnezzar's  forgotten  dream  (chap,  ii),  are  given  in 
terms  of  kingdoms  and  their  types,  culminating  in  the  vision 
of  one  "like  unto  a  son  of  man,"  who,  standing  before 
the  Ancient  of  Days,  receives  an  everlasting  dominion  which 

1  See  "  Tlie  Enigma  of  the  Later  Revelations,"  pp.  297-300,  above. 
[513] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

shall  not  pass  away  (see  vii,  9-14,  27).  Such  is  the  final 
victory,  when  the  judgment  is  set  (vii,  26),  and  the  king 
who  has  spoken  "  words  against  the  Most  High  "  loses  his 
malign  power.  "  Here,"  says  the  author,  "  is  the  end  of  the 
matter  "  (vii,  28),  — as  if  all  else  were  subsidiary.  The  more 
specific  disclosure,  indeed,  of  "'  what  shall  be  in  the  latter 
time  of  the  indignation"  (cf.  viii,  19),  "  belongeth  to  the 
appointed  time  of  the  end,"  and  can  be  reckoned  in  times; 
but  this  is  final  and  supreme. 

We  call  this  kind  of  theme  apocalyptic,^  and  many  stu- 
dents take  its  novelty  as  if  the  author  of  Daniel  had  intro- 
duced it.  It  is  not  new.  The  author  has  merely  put  into 
vivid  description  and  imagery  subjects  that  from  the  begin- 
ning of  literary  prophecy  have  risen  like  the  promise  of  dawn 
from  beyond  their  horizon.  It  is  the  kind  of  theme  that 
deals  with  such  matters  as  the  judgment  of  the  world,  the 
coming  kingdom  of  heaven,  the  life  hereafter,  the  times  of 
the  end,  —  matters  which,  ignoring  the  intermediate  chain 
of  cause  and  circumstance,  or  political  vicissitude,  reveal  a 
foreshortened  event,  opening  thereto  a  boundless  field  of 
intuition  and  realistic  imagination.  The  prophets  before 
Daniel,  busy  with  environing  conditions,  could  not  let  them- 
selves go  in  apocalyptic  ;  but  many  apocalyptic  elements, 
more  or  less  succinct  or  fleeting,  occur  in  their  writings.  It 
remained  for  the  author  of  Daniel,  speaking  as  if  from  the 
time  of  its  early  outlook,  to  give  it  the  charm  of  vision  and 
symbol  and  story  and  concentrate  it  upon  its  personal  con- 
summator,  at  the  same  time  publishing  it  at  the  point  in 
Jewish  history  where  it  would  do  the  most  immediate  good. 
For  what  is  more  than  this  his  prophecy  too,  as  soon  as  he 
has  predicted  the  end  of  Antiochus  (xi,  45),  is  foreshortened, 
and  goes  out  in  a  variegated  picture  of  resurrection  (xii,  2), 
of  the  glory  of  good  teaching  (3),  of  increased  knowledge 
(4),  and  of  a  mingled  goodness  and  wickedness  (10)  not 
1  For  a  definition  of  "apocalyptic,"  see  above,  p.  147,  note  2. 
[5U] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  -HEBREW  CLASSICS 

unlike  the  condition  depicted  in  Isa.  xxxii,  i-8.  To  Daniel 
himself  "  the  words  are  shut  up  and  sealed  till  the  time  of 
the  end  "  (vss.  4,  9),  and  he  puts  no  period  to  the  "  thousand 
three  hundred  and  five  and  thirty  days  "  (vs.  12)  ;  but  when 
the  seal  is  broken  "  they  that  are  wise  shall  understand  " 
(vs.  10),  and  over  it  all  shines  afar  the  surviving  and  vic- 
torious kingdom  which  it  is  the  central  purpose  of  the  book 
to  reveal,  —  the  kingdom  that  "  shall  be  given  to  the  people 
of  the  saints  of  the  Most  High  "  (vii,  27). 

Note.  Professor  R.  H.  Charles,  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica, 
gives  the  following  list  of  passages  in  the  canonical  Old  Testament 
apocalyptic:  Isa.  xxiv-xxvii ;  xxxiii ;  xxxiv-xxxv  (Jer.  xxxiii,  14-26.'*); 
Ezek.  ii,  8;  xxxvii-xxxix ;  Joel  iii,  9-17;  Zech.  xii-xiv ;  Daniel.  To 
these  he  ought  certainly  to  have  added  much  of  the  Second  Isaiah,  and 
especially  its  culminating  prophecy  of  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth, 
chapters  Ixv,  Ixvi. 

We  have  seen  how  remarkably  the  Book  of  Daniel  fitted 
itself  to  the  desperate  crisis  of  its  Maccabean  age.  Not  less 
_,^   ^  .^         remarkable  is  the  way  in  which  it  met  and  con- 

The  Literary  ■' 

Vehicle  and  trolled  its  age's  literary  tendencies  and  tastes.  Its 
stimulus  story  form  of  invention  was  already  a  favorite 
vogue ;  we  have  seen  this  in  Esther  and  Ruth  and  Jonah. ^ 
In  its  age  also  the  custom  was  rising,  and  soon  to  become 
very  prevalent,  of  writing  books  in  the  name  or  personality 
of  great  ones  of  history  ;  we  have  seen  this  in  Ecclesiastes 
and  his  personation  of  Solomon,  and  many  uncanonical 
works  of  the  succeeding  time  carry  it  on.  Most  notable  of 
all,  however,  is  the  stimulating  effect  of  its  apocalyptic  theme, 
—  fresh  and  awakening  as  this  proved  to  be.  It  is  not  too 
much  to  say  the  Book  of  Daniel  set  the  imagination  of  de- 
vout Judaism  aflame.  For  the  moral  austerity  of  the  classi- 
cal prophets  it  substitutes  the  words  and  imagery  of  an 
old-time  mage  (Daniel  never  poses  as  a  prophet),  speaking 
in  the  visioned  lore  of  Chaldean  speculation.   Thus  it  opened 

1  Cf.  what  is  said  of  Daniel,  pp.  280,  281,  above. 
[515] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

a  new  and  fascinating  field  already  to  a  degree  warranted 
in  Scripture  but  never  before  exploited.  From  this  time 
onward,  until  about  a.  d,  lOO,  apocalyptic  speculation  was 
very  popular,  its  most  prominent  work,  the  Book  of  Enoch, 
appearing  less  than  a  century  after  Daniel.  It  was  largely 
from  the  ideas  exploited  in  these  extra-canonical  books  — 
ideas  of  last  judgment,  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  the  Son  of 
man,  resurrection,  heaven  and  hell,  the  end  of  the  age  — 
that  the  terms  and  conceptions  were  derived  to  which  our 
Lord  adjusted  his  teaching  and  ministry.  He  found  in  these, 
as  in  the  older  Scriptures,  much  both  to  adopt  and  to  cor- 
rect.^ Only  the  Book  of  Daniel,  however,  in  this  apocalyptic 
strain,  attained  to  an  assured  place  in  the  Hebrew  canon. 

As  the  Book  of  Daniel  by  its  bold  use  of  mystic  vision 
revived  and  exalted  the  Jewish  hope,  so  more  than  a  cen- 
tury before  (cir.  300  b.c.)  the  Chronicler,  by  his 
Chronicler's  resume  of  the  nation's  history  in  the  clerical 
Resume  of  mood,  had  brought  the  record  of  the  Judean 
^"  dynasty  and  the  Temple  cultus  continuously 
onward  to  the  reorganization  on  priestly  and  Pentateuchal 
principles  under  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  ;  at  which  point,  as 
the  record  ends  here,  we  have  before  us  for  Biblical  values 
a  stationary  and  static  Judaism,  in  which  "Jerusalem  had 
ceased  to  be  the  head  of  an  independent  state  and  had 
become  merely  a  municipality  governed  by  a  church."  ^ 
We  have  already  reviewed  this  work  of  the  Chronicler,  in 
the  section  on  "The  Later  Cultus  Literature."  ^  I  call  him 
"The  Chronicler,"  in  the  singular  number,  because  the 
three  works  (or  rather  two)  of  which  the  series  is  made  up 
seem  to  have  come  originally  from  the  pen  of  one  author 
or  editor^  and  to  have  been  composed  with  reference  to 
each  other.  These  two,  Ezra-Nehemiah  and  Chronicles, 
are  the  latest  history  given  in  the  Hebrew  canon. 

1  See  below,  p.  528.  '  See  above,  pp.  403-414. 

2  Cf.  above,  p.  408.  *  Cf.  above,  pp.  404,  405. 

[516] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

In  the  arrangement  of  this  division  of  the  canon,  Ezra- 
Nehemiah,  though  its  story  reaches  to  a  later  date,  is  put 
before  Chronicles.  Its  object  is  to  carry  the  history  on  from 
Cyrus's  edict  of  return  to  the  establishment  of  law  and  cultus 
under  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  as  marked  by  thfe  reception  of 
the  Pentateuch  and  the  Levitical  organization  of  the  priestly 
service.  From  this  point  the  Jewish  history,  its  Biblical  values 
all  in,  may  be  taken  for  granted. 

As  placed  after  Ezra-Nehemiah,  and  thus  at  the  very  end 
of  the  whole  canon,  the  Book  of  Chronicles  (i  and  2  Chron- 
inthe  ^^^^^  originally  a  single  book)  reads  like  a  kind 

Nature  of  of  appendix  or  supplement  to  the  whole  course 
ppen  IX  ^£  Scripture  annals,  designed  to  make  it  homo- 
geneous with  the  matured  Judaism  of  the  end.  Its  title  im- 
plies this,  and  as  translated  into  Greek  asserts  it.  It  begins 
with  Adam  (i  Chron.  i,  i)  ;  but  except  for  names  and  gene- 
alogies in  which  the  priestly  line  has  a  generous  share,  it 
has  no  occasion  to  enlarge  upon  events  until  the  Davidic 
house  and  the  southern  kingdom  enter,  after  which  the 
detailed  resume,  though  traversing  the  ground  already  cov- 
ered by  Samuel  and  Kings,  is  shaped  and  colored  to  the 
Judaic  and  Levitical  model  until  the  surviving  common- 
wealth, with  the  Pentateuch  as  constitution  and  the  Temple 
as  capitol,  has  passed  from  monarchy  to  high-priesthood. 
"The  law  was  given  through  Moses"  (John  i,  17),  and  the 
completed  organization  under  that  law  is  portrayed  at  the 
literary  frontier  of  the  Hebrew  Bible.  By  this  the  older 
dispensation  is  ready  to  be  estimated  through  the  ages. 

II 

The  Pause  between  the  Testaments.  To  the  Jews,  thus 
fortified  in  their  ancient  covenant,  this  doubtless  meant  a 
finality ;  though  their  most  liberal  and  far-seeing  prophets 
had  not  read  their  destiny  so  (cf.,  for  instance,  Jer.  xxxi, 
31-34  ;  Isa.  xlix,  5-7),  nor  would  the  opening  of  apocalyptic 

[517] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

vision  and  reckoning  have  it  so.  Not  a  finality  closed  to 
further  additions,  it  was  rather  a  pause  until  time  and  con- 
ditions should  be  ripe  for  enlargement  and  fulfillment  in 
more  universal  relations.  Meanwhile  let  us  note  what  shape 
the  Old  Test^ient  canon  assumes,  with  what  modifications, 
as  thus  it  rounds  out  its  third  division  and  pauses  at  its 
literary  frontier. 

In  its  later  years  the  Hebrew  culture  had  two  centers  of 

activity   and   influence,   one  at   Jerusalem,  where  were   its 

scribes  and  rabbis  and  religious  zealots,  the  other 

The 

Provincial  ^^  Alexandria,  which  we  may  call  the  capital  of 
Facing  the  the  Dispcrsion,  where  were  its  scholars  and 
thinkers,  and  where  numerous  communities  of 
outland  Jews  must  subsist  under  foreign  conditions.  Among 
these  latter  circles  not  only  must  the  Hebrew  literature 
maintain  its  rivalry  with  the  most  cultivated  literature  of 
the  world,^  it  must  be  put  into  the  language  medium  which 
its  own  devotees  could  use.  That  language  medium,  now 
becoming  universal  for  world  intercourse,  was  the  Greek. 
Accordingly,  almost  coetaneously  with  the  final  shaping  of 
the  Hebrew  book  came  the  earliest  version  of  it,  the  Sep- 
tuagint  translation,  done  by  Alexandrian  scholars.  The  event 
was  momentous.  One  may  call  it  the  first  stroke  against 
Hebrew  exclusiveness,  the  first  step  beyond  the  pause.  It 
was  like  the  provincial  called  to  face  the  universal ;  an  out- 
lying parochial  literature  to  exhibit  itself  before  more  finely 
developed  tastes  and  standards  of  culture.  It  could  not  well 
escape  some  tendency  to  pliability  and  modification.  Rigidly 
Jewish  as  it  remained  in  substance,  it  must  in  form  become 
readable  also  to  the  Greek  literary  sense. 

We  have  called  the  Jewish  people,  educated  by  the  tread- 
ing in  of  their  venerable  literature,  the  people  of  a  book. 
This  Old  Testament  in  its  three  coordinate  divisions  of 
Law,  Prophets,  and  Writings,  is  their  book,  as  it  were  a 

1  Cf.  above,  p.  431. 
[518] 


TREASURY  OF  THE  CHOICE  HEBREW  CLASSICS 

library  molded  to  the  unity  of  a  dominant  idea.  These  divi- 
sions followed  one  another  in  successive  periods  of  time  as 
Effects  of  ^^^^^  values  came  to  clearness  and  standard,  the 
the  Greek  last  not  being  finally  settled  until  near  a.d,  ioo. 
It  is  not  in  our  scope  here  to  trace  modifying 
elements  through  the  Septuagint  and  its  dependent  versions 
except  in  one  particular,  an  important  one  indeed  ;  namely, 
the  arrangement.  The  change  is  especially  noticeable  in  the 
third  division.  It  consists  in  putting  seven  books  of  that 
division,  by  a  juster  literary  valuation,  where  they  intrin- 
sically belong.  We  have  already  noted  (see  p.  431)  the 
transfers  that  were  made.  The  result  was  to  put  narrative 
works  (Ruth,  Esther,  Ezra,  Nehemiah,  Chronicles)  where 
they  could  be  read  with  other  works  of  their  class  in  conse- 
cution and  context,  and  to  put  works  of  prophetic  strain 
(Lamentations,  Daniel)  where  their  subject  matter  is  vital. 
This  leaves  of  the  third  division  only  the  five  poetical  books 
(Job,  Psalms,  Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes,  Song  of  Songs),  the 
mere  withdrawal  of  the  others  sufficing  to  give  them  a  class 
by  themselves.  How  this  facilitates  reading  the  Scripture 
as  a  classified  series  of  coordinated  works  is  obvious  enough. 
It  makes  the  successive  stages  more  homogeneous  in  literary 
theme  and  tone.  But  this  is  not  all.  The  Hebrew  divisions 
themselves  are  quite  disregarded  in  favor  of  a  more  con- 
secutive sense  of  the  underlying  idea.  With  the  prophets 
put  not  second  but  last,  and  with  the  poetry  central  in  the 
volume,  one  who  now  reads  the  Old  Testament  in  course  has 
before  him,  first,  the  storied  and  creative  past,  to  whose  an- 
nals the  law  however  given  or  obeyed  is  merely  an  adjunct ; 
second  and  central,  the  present  living  values  of  poetry  in 
lyric  and  lesson  ;  and  finally  in  the  body  of  the  most  unique 
and  penetrative  contribution  of  the  Hebrew  mind  to  the  world's 
thought,  the  prophetic  sense  and  power  of  the  eternal  future. 
Here  is  the  true  place  to  pause,  as  it  were  in  position  for  the 
next  movement.    P'rom  this  frontier  the  look  is  forward. 

[519] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

NoTK.  The  apocalyptic  visions  of  Daniel,  at  whatever  time  published, 
are  ostensibly  reckoned  from  the  time  of  the  captivity,  and  being  by  so 
much  remote  from  the  pausing  point  between  the  Testaments  are  cor- 
respondingly vague  and  mystical.  Much  less  vague  and  undefined, 
though  equally  apocalyptic,  are  the  prophecies  noted  under  "  The 
Subsidence  of  Prophecy,"  pages  352-359,  namely,  Zech.  ix-xiv  and 
Malachi.  So  much  the  more  fitting  is  it,  therefore,  that  the  Greek 
variation  has  so  rearranged  the  Old  Testament  canon  that  these,  as 
completing  the  prophetic  section,  come  last.  *  (Cf.  remarks  on  "  The 
Messenger  and  his  Function,"  pp.  367-369.) 

And  when  the  new  order  is  at  the  fullness  of  the  time,  it 
begins  where,  as  we  now  view  it,  the  old  leaves  off.  John 
the  Baptist,  its  herald,  speaks  in  the  spirit  of  Elijah,  its 
typical  prophet,  and  is  identified  by  the  prediction  of  Malachi, 
its  latest  prophet.  He  regards  himself  as  merely  the  Voice 
heard  by  the  Second  'Isaiah,  proclaiming  the  way  of 
Jehovah  (John  i,  23  ;  cf.  Isa.  xl,  3).  Thus  he  breaks  the 
pause  by  instituting  a  new  surge  of  thought  and  power, 
pushing  on  toward  completion  the  unfinality  of  the  old 
movement.  So  by  the  time  when,  about  the  end  of  the 
first  Christian  century,  the  careful  Jewish  rabbis  have  fully 
determined  the  content  and  purity  of  their  canon,  enough 
literature  of  the  new  order  is  in  hand  to  make  up  another 
which,  just  as  carefully  selected,  is  to  the  first  as  reality  to 
vision,  as  fulfillment  to  promise. 


520] 


BOOK  III 
THE  PEOPLE  OF  THE  WAY 


Ye  search  the  Scriptures,  because  ye  think  that  in  them  ye  have  eternal 
life ;  and  these  are  they  which  bear  witness  of  me.  ...  I  am  the  way. — 
Jesus 

But  this  I  confess  unto  thee,  that  after  the  Way  which  they  call  a  sect, 
so  serve  I  the  God  of  our  fathers,  believing  all  things  which  are  according 
to  the  law,  and  which  are  written  in  the  prophets  ;  having  hope  toward  God, 
which  these  also  themselves  look  for.  —  Paul 


[522] 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  THE  WAY 

BECAUSE  the  Jewish  people,  during  the  period  between 
the  Exile  and  the  coming  of  Jesus,  set  such  extraordi- 
nary value  on  their  literature,  coordinating  its  classics  to- 
gether into  a  single  library  or  canon,  we  have  called  them 
the  People  of  a  Book.  From  that  book  or  its  component 
parts,  which  later  ages  called  the  Old  Testament,  they  drew 
all  that  was  authoritative  for  life  and  instruction.  It  was, 
as  of  the  Jewish  race  it  still  is,  their  Bible  ;  and  as  such 
its  body  of  literature  was  regarded  as  practically  closed  and 
complete. 

When  Jesus  came  and  made  disciples  he  appealed  to  the 
same  book.  He  was  a  thorough  student  of  it ;  and  it  was 
as  valuable  to  him  as  it  was  to  the  Jewish  people  of  his  time 
(cf.  Luke  xxiv,  27,  44  ;  John  v,  39).  But  it  was  valuable 
in  a  different  way.  To  the  scribes,  who  were  the  accredited 
Biblical  scholars  of  his  day,  it  was  virtually  a  repository 
of  dead  rules,  precepts,  doctrines,  to  which  they  appended 
numerous  minute  distinctions  and  applications,  technically 
called  midrash^  (a  word  meaning  "investigation,"  "inter- 
pretation ").  These  oral  additions  became  so  numerous  and 
so  exclusively  valued  that  the  spirit  of  the  original  was  well- 
nigh  gone  (cf.  Mark  vii,  9,  1 3).  The  Bible  had  suffered, 
in  fact,  the  fate  of  becorriing  a  classic,  the  fate  of  being 
treated  as  a  stereotyped  and  finished  product  of  the  past. 
To  Jesus,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  a  book  whose  spirit  and 
principles  were  living  things ;  to  be  apprehended  therefore 
with  the  freedom  of  a  pure  heart  and  sound  sense.  It  was 
a  book  not  merely  of  scholarship  and  erudition,  but  of  the 

1  Cf.  above,  p-407,  footnote. 
[523] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

constant  and  permanent  values  of  life.  He  handled  it  in 
such  a  way,  as  he  taught,  that  its  truth  needed  no  labored 
explanation  or  analysis  ;  it  was  self-evident. 

Note.  Jesus  calls  the  scribes'  additions  to  Scripture  "  tradition," 
paradosis  ton  presbiiteron ;  and  as  far  as  they  obscured  or  traversed  the 
true  meaning  of  Scripture  he  regarded  them  as  hurtful  excrescences ; 
cf.  Matt.  XV,  6 ;  xxiii,  23. 

After  Jesus'  death  and  resurrection,  when  little  companies 
of  his  followers  drew  their  faith  and  inspiration  from  the 
memory  of  his  life,  they  did  not  at  first  think  of  themselves 
as  other  than  loyal  Jews  ;  for  whom,  as  for  all  other  Jews, 
the  Old  Testament  was  the  supreme  literary  and  -religious 
authority.  Their  new  faith  was  to  them  the  venerable  Jew- 
ish faith  and  doctrine,  with  its  meanings  deepened  and  its 
prophecies  fulfilled.  It  was  some  years,  indeed,  before  they 
received  the  distinctive  name  of  Christians  (see  Acts  xi,  26). 
Their  manner  of  belief  was  first  called  The  Way  (see  Acts 
ix,  2)  ;  and  they  were  first  persecuted  as  a  heretical  sect  of 
Jews.  But  the  person  who,  to  begin  with,  was  most  zealous 
to  persecute  them,  Saul  of  Tarsus,  who  was  himself  origi- 
nally a  Pharisee  —  that  is,  of  the  strictest  Jewish  sect  (Acts 
xxvi,  5)  — became  convinced  that  this  Christian  way  of  life, 
though  called  a  sect,  was  really  in  the  direct  line  of  enlarged 
and  fulfilled  Judaism  (see  Acts  xxiv,  14,  15).  It  is  perhaps 
to  St.  Paul,  indeed,  that  we  owe  the  name  The  Way,  as 
applied  to  Christianity.  We  adopt  the  name  therefore  by 
Scripture  warrant,  and  cbnsider  the  literature  of  the  Chris- 
tian way,  that  is,  the  New  Testament,  as  the  vital  comple- 
tion of  the  truth  foreshadowed  in  the  Old. 

It  was  many  years  after  Jesus'  ministry  before  a  distinctive 
Christian  literature  had  so  accumulated  as  to  form  the  ma- 
terial for  a  New  Testament  canon.  Meanwhile  the  Christians 
were  the  people  of  a  life  rather  than  of  a  book.  "'  An  epistle 
of  Christ  "  (2  Cor.  iii,  3)  St.  Paul,  the  great  writer  of  epistles, 
calls  them.     It  was  the  life  that  was  in  them,  rather  than 

[524] 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  THE  WAY 

the  books  they  wrote,  that  made  them  a  power  in  the  world  ; 
it  was  their  distinctive  Way  of  Hfe,  learned  at  first  hand  by 
familiar  intercourse  with  a  wise  and  gracious  Master,  that, 
as  time  and  experience  wrought  their  seasoning  influence, 
created  their  literature,  the  literature  of  the  New  Testament. 
Accordingly,  it  is  wdth  that  personal  source  and  type  that 
we  have  first  to  deal ;  with  the  words  and  acts  of  Jesus, 
which  in  themselves  were  not  only  a  wisdom  of  life  but 
a  skilled  and  finished  literary  power.  To  take  note  of  this 
is  the  object  proposed  in  the  chapter  on  The  Son  of  Man. 
How  all  this  with  its  apostolic  consequences  got  itself  into 
biographical  and  historical  record  is  considered  in  the  chap- 
ter on  The  Literature  of  Fact.  The  chapter  on  The  Lit- 
erature of  Values,  following  thereon,  traces  how  the  large 
meanings  of  the  Christian  Way  were  deduced  from  the 
ministry  of  Jesus  and  from  the  older  literature  of  which 
Christianity  is  the  heir.  And  finally,  in  the  chapter  on 
The  Resurgence  of  Prophecy,  is  considered  how  the  Chris- 
tian Way  from  being  a  fulfillment  projects  itself  in  turn 
onward  toward  the  limitless  future,  toward  Isaiah's  promise 
of  "new  heavens  and  a  new  earth"  (cf.  Isa.  Ixv,  17; 
Rev.  xxi,  I,  2), 


[525] 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  SON  OF  MAN 

[4  B.C.  to  A.D.  30] 

WHATEVER  estimate  our  religious  affiliations  have 
led  us  to  form  of  the  personality  of  Jesus,  the  fact 
with  which  our  present  study  is  concerned  is  that  the  whole 
New  Testament  literature  centers  in  him.  He  is  its  inspira- 
tion, its  vitality,  its  formative  influence.  Its  interpretation 
of  the  older  literature,  its  new  light  on  the  way  of  life,  its 
clear  conception  of  eternal  values,  all  derive  from  the  life, 
the  words,  the  ministry  of  Jesus. 

The  New  Testament  writers  are  indeed  thoroughly 
grounded,  as  was  their  Master,  in  Old  Testament  ideas.  Its 
laws,  its  prophecies,  its  wisdom,  its  poetry,  are  constantly 
referred  to  and  quoted  by  them,  as  things  familiarly  known. 
Thus  in  a  very  intimate  way  the  New  Testament  is  inter- 
woven with  the  Old  ;  nor  does  it  profess  in  any  sense  to 
supersede  the  Old.  Rather,  it  supplements  and  completes 
it.  The  older  ideas,  true  as  they  are,  it  regards  as  essen- 
tially unfinal,  incomplete,  preparatory  to  something  fuller 
and  clearer  (cf.  Col.  ii,  16,  17  ;  Heb.  x,  i)  ;  and  the  realiza- 
tion, the  fulfillment,  is  embodied  in  personal  form  in  Jesus. 
He  actually  is  what  the  ancient  prophets  dreamed  ought  to 
be,  and  more.  As  one  of  his  New  Testament  biographers 
puts  it  (John  i,  4)  :  '"  In  him  was  life,  and  the  life  was  the 
light  of  men." 

Note.  By  that  same  biographer,  in  the  profoundest  of  the  gospels, 
Jesus  is  introduced  by  a  conception  essentially  literary  :  he  is  called  the 
Word  {logos)  made  flesh  and  dwelling  among  us  (John  i,  14);  as  if  the 

[5-^6] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

idea  of  God,  inexpressible  otherwise,  were  concentrated  In  a  single  word, 
and  that  word  were  spelled  not  in  letters  but  in  human  life.  Tennyson 
has  embodied  the  idea  in  a  stanza  : 

And  so  the  Word  had  breath,  and  wrought 
With  human  hands  the  creed  of  creeds 
In  loveliness  of  perfect  deeds, 

More  strong  than  all  poetic  thought ; 

Which  he  may  read  that  binds  the  sheaf, 
Or  builds  the  house,  or  digs  the  grave. 
And  those  wild  eyes  that  watch  the  wave 

In  roarings  round  the  coral  reef.^ 

This  is  literary  expression  conceived  in  its  ideal  simplicity  and  its  perfect 
power  of  intelligibility, — answering  to  the  supreme  purpose  of  revelation. 

Our  study  of  the  New  Testament  period  of  the  Biblical 
literature,  therefore,  naturally  begins  with  the  personal  source 
from  which  its  power  and  truth  are  derived  ;  and  to  this  end 
we  designate  him  by  the  title  which  he  himself  chose  and 
which  none  will  deny  him,  The  Son  of  Man. 

I.  Expectation  and  Answer 

As  the  result  of  the  literary  ideals  in  which  the  Jewish 
race  had  been  educated,  there  was' at  the  time  of  Jesus' 
coming  a  widespread  expectation,  shared  in  by  all  classes, 
of  a  coming  new  order  of  things.  In  a  general  way  that 
expectation  had  been  derived  from  the  older  prophets,  whose 
activity  had  subsided  after  the  return  from  captivity  and  the 
rebuilding  of  the  Temple,  four  centuries  before.  But  since 
the  time  of  the  Maccabees,  when  the  Book  of  Daniel  was 
written  (about  i68'i5.c.),  a  new  species  of  literature,  the 
apocalyptic,  had  become  popular.  In  this  literature  the  idea 
of  the  new  order  was  conceived  in  terms  at  once  more  defi- 
nite and  more  idealized.  Thus  the  expectation  was  supported 
by  a  kind  of  fusion  of  two  ideas  :  the  prophetic,  giving  it 
moral  substance,  and  the  apocalyptic,  giving  it  vividness. 
The  new  order  was  to  be  a  kingdom  of  heaven.     Its  king, 

^  Tennyson,  "  In  Memoriam,"  xxxvi. 
[527] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

who  was  to  be  of  the  stock  of  David,  was  designated  some- 
what vaguely  as  the  Messiah,  or,  in  its  Greek  equivalent,  the 
Christ,  meaning  "the  Anointed  One."  A  more  common 
designation,  and  still  more  vague  but  well  understood,  was 
"He  that  cometh,"  or  "The  Coming  One"  (cf.  Matt,  iii, 
II  ;  xi,  3).  The  result  of  his  coming,  as  was  supposed, 
would  be  a  peremptory  overturn  of  the  existing  government 
and  the  restoration  of  sovereignty  to  Israel.  This  hope  had 
long  been  gathering  head,  and  by  the  time  Jesus  came  its 
fulfillment  was  generally  felt  to  be  near. 

It  is  important  to  note  how  the  prevailing  idea  of  the  new 
order  shaped  itself  in  men's  imaginations.     For  if  Jesus  set 

himself  definitely  to  inaugurate  it  he  must  both 
The  Ideas 

that  the         conform  his  teaching  to  current  conceptions  and 

Coming  One  correct  these  where  they  were  wrong  or  excessive 
must  Meet  -^ 

or  one-sided.    What  was  this  kingdom  of  heaven 

to  be  like  .-*    What  would  be  the  character  of  its  king,  the 

Messiah  .■'    What  would   be   the   conditions   of   his    reign  ? 

Such  were  the  questions  already  in  the  air  that  must  be 

met  and  answered.    All  sorts  of  imaginings,  vague  or  vivid, 

pious  or  crafty,  were  enlisted  in  the  inquiry  ;  and  whatever 

its  form  the  expectation  was  intense,  eager,  ready  to  break 

out  in  revolt  or  fanaticism.    Evidently  the  situation  was  one 

to  be  dealt  with  wisely,  patiently,  constructively.    Men's  ideas 

must  not  only  be  answered  and  appeased  ;  they  must  first 

of  all  be  educated. 

The  idea  of  the  coming  order  most  popularly  prevalent 

was  the  apocalyptic.   In  accordance  with' this  the  new  regime 

Among  the     was    figured    as    one    of    conquest   and   absolute 

Literaiists      dominion,  in  which  as  subjects  of  the  Messiah 

the  Jewish  race  was  not  only  to  be  delivered  from  the  power 

of  Rome  (that  of  course)  but  to  have  ascendancy  over  the 

whole  world.    That  is,  it  was  conceived  in  terms  of  earthly 

despotism,  and   its  center  of  power  was  to  be  Jerusalem 

and  Palestine.    With  this  dream  of  worldly  sovereignty  was 

[528] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

mingled  a  supernatural  element.  The  Messiah,  who  was 
imagined  to  correspond,  was  to  be  first  of  all  an  irresistible 
conqueror,  who  would  come  suddenly  from  heaven  and  over- 
turn the  existing  order  ;  and  then  he  would  reign  in  a  divine 
power  and  splendor  which  nothing  could  withstand  or  rival. 
It  was  to  be  a  kingdom  inaugurated  by  miracle,  and  main- 
tained not  by  the  inner  worth  and  integrity  of  its  subjects 
but  by  the  limitless  might  and  glory  of  its  absolute  Monarch. 
Such  was  the  idea  among  the  less  thoughtful  and  more 
demonstrative.  It  would  easily  find  the  response  of  the 
floating  masses,  who  were  equally  ready  to  be  swayed  by 
pretenders  raising  insurrections  against  Roman  rule  or  by 
fanatics  who  would  form  a  new  religious  sect.  Already 
by  the  time  of  Jesus'  coming  several  such  movements  had 
risen  and  been  put  down  (cf.  Acts  v,  36,  37)  —  movements 
generally  characterized  by  excess  and  violence,  though  having 
at  heart  the  expected  kingdom.  There  was  a  sect  called  the 
Zealots,  apparently  of  revolutionary  sentiments,  from  whom 
Jesus,  in  his  large,  tolerance  of  human  temperaments,  chose 
one  of  his  apostles  (see  Luke  vi,  15  ;  Acts  i,  13).  Men  of 
all  classes, .  it  would  seem,  were  to  be  educated  for  the 
new  order. 

Note.  Of  this  Messianic  expectancy  Dr.  Sanday  ("  Life  of  Christ  in 
Recent  Research,"  p.  81)  says :  "  It  may  be  .  .  .  true  that  there  were  a 
good  many  Jews  for  whom  the  Messianic  hope  was  more  or  less  dormant. 
But  I  imagine  that  from  the  time  of  the  Maccabees  to  the  time  of  Bar- 
cochba  there  was  a  Messianic  background  —  or  something  Hke  it  —  to 
every  popular  movement  that  swept  over  Palestine.  I  cannot  think  that 
the  Zealots,  for  instance,  were  either  simple  brigands  or  a  purely  political 
party  without  any  admixture  of  religion.  Just  as  the  Book  of  Daniel 
reveals  the  spiritual  atmosphere  of  the  age  to  which  it  belongs,  so  also 
do  the  Psalms  of  Solomon  reveal  the  like  conditions  a  hundred  years 
later,  and  the  Assumption  of  Moses  Tater  still.  .  .  .  That  the  religious 
hopes  as  well  as  the  political  often  took  a  very  coarse  and  violent  form, 
I, regard  as  certain.  Therefore  it  seems  to  me  that  if  our  Lord  appealed 
to  these  hopes,  He  could  not  do  so  without  to  some  extent  correcting 
them." 

[529] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

To  the  more  contemplative  and  devout-minded,  however, 

and  especially  the  common  people  remote  from  public  affairs, 

the  coming  new  order  shaped  itself  in  terms  less 

Among  the  '^  '^ 

Spiritually  material  and  political,  and  more  as  a  spiritual 
Minded  emancipation  and  blessedness.    Such  people,  for 

instance,  were  Simeon  and  Anna  (Luke  ii,  25,  38),  an  aged 
devout  man  and  a  prophetess  in  the  time  of  Jesus'  infancy, 
who  were  "  looking  for  the  consolation  of  Israel  "  and  for 
"  the  redemption  of  Jerusalem."  Such  also  was  the  coun- 
cillor Joseph  of  Arimathea  (Luke  xxiii,  51),  who  was  "look- 
ing for  the  kingdom  of  God."  It  was  from  this  class  of 
people,  too,  that  the  parents  of  Jesus  came,  and  the  cousins 
and  friends  from  whom  he  selected  his  disciples  (cf.  John  i, 
35-42).  It  was  on  such  a  basis  of  character  and  hope  as 
these  represented  that  a  sane  and  constructive  conception  of 
the  kingdom  and  the  Coming  One  could  best  be  shaped. 


The  Prophetic  Herald.  One  element  in  the  Jewish  ex- 
pectation of  the  Messiah  was  that  when  he  came  he  would 
be  preceded  by  a  herald  or  messenger,  whose  function  it 
would  be  to  prepare  the  way  for  him.  This  idea  they  drew, 
not  from  the  popular  apocalyptic  literature  but  from  the  older 
prophets.  "  The  voice  of  one  that  crieth.  Prepare  ye  .  .  .  the 
way  of  Jehovah  "  (Isa.  xl,  3),  for  instance,  was  accepted  as 
the  prophecy  of  an  event  much  later  than  the  time  of  its 
utterance.  There  was  also  a  prediction  of  a  messenger  to 
prepare  Jehovah's  way,  given  by  the  latest  prophet  Malachi, 
about  four  hundred  years  before  (Mai.  iii,  i).  To  the  literal- 
minded  this  prediction  was  made  realistic  by  the  same 
prophet's  assertion  (Mai.  iv,  5)  that  the  herald  was  to  be  the 
prophet  Elijah  ;  who  would  supposedly  come  back  from 
the  unseen  world  for  the  purpose.  Thus  the  imagination 
of  the  people  had  endowed  the  expected  herald  as  well  as 
the  Messiah  himself  with  mystic  and  super-carllily  powers. 

[530] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

■  Doubtless,  too,  there  was  a  variety  of  ideas,  from  the 
most  material  to  the  most  spiritual,  as  to  how  this  herald 
would  be  identified  when  he  came.  Their  literature,  in  fact, 
had  given  them  a  personal  image  ;  and  time  and  fancy  had 
made  this  loom  so  large  that  any  concrete  object  answering 
to  it  must  almost  necessarily  be  more  or  less  estranging. 
In  other  words,  both  the  herald  and  the  Messiah,  when  they 
came,  had  to  meet  the  inevitable  sense  of  shrinkage  that 
seems  to  ensue  when  an  object  of  imagination  becomes  an 
object  of  actual  sense-perception. 

John  the  Baptist,  whose  mission  it  was  to  be  the  fore- 
runner of  Jesus,  was  a  kinsman  of  his,  six  months  his  elder 
The  Idea  (Luke  i,  36).  He  was  of  priestly  stock,  born  of 
Made  Real  parents  who  were  of  the  Puritan  type  of  Jewish 
piety  (Luke  i,  5,6).  St.  Luke  relates  that  his  mission,  to  go 
before  the  Messiah  in  the  spirit  and  power  of  Elijah,  was 
prophesied  of  him  before  his  birth  (Luke  i,  17)  ;  and  as  a 
young  man  both  his  training  and  temperament  led  him  to 
the  same  kind  of  ascetic  and  austere  life  as  had  been  lived 
by  Elijah  the  Tishbite  more  than  eight  centuries*  before  (cf. 
I  Kings  xvii-xxii ;  also  2  Kings  i,  7,  8).  Until  his  public 
ministry  began  he  lived  in  the  Judean  wilderness,  perhaps 
in  one  of  the  numerous  caves  of  the  region  ;  and  his  dress, 
diet,  and  habits  emphasized  the  almost  savage  sternness  of 
his  attitude  to  life.  It  was  as  if  by  such  symbolic  means 
he  would  warn  men  to  return  from  the  artificial  and  degen- 
erate tendencies  of  civilization  to  primitive  first  principles. 

""  John  the  Baptist,"  says  Professor  J.  R.  Seeley,^  "was  like 
the  Emperor  Nerva.  In  his  career  it  was  given  him  to  do 
two  things  —  to  inaugurate  a  new  regime,  and  also  to  nomi- 
nate a  successor  who  was  far  greater  than  himself."  Of 
these  two  things  he  was  aware  from  the  beginning  of  his 
career,  and  ordered  his  ministry  accordingly.  Adopting  a 
primitive  custom,  he  embodied  his  requirement  in  a  symbolic 
,  1  Seeley,  "  Ecce  Tlomo,"  p.  10. 

[531] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

act,  namely,  the  baptism  of  those  who  heeded  his  word  and 
repented  of  their  evil  life.  As  he  administered  the  rite, 
however,  he  told  his  hearers  that  this  baptism  was  only  pre- 
liminary to  something  greater.  Expressed  in  water,  it  meant 
merely  the  negative  virtue  of  cleansing  and  change  of  pur- 
pose ;  while  the  successor  who  was  coming  would  impart  the 
positive  virtue,  symbolized  by  the  Holy  Spirit  and  fire  (Matt, 
iii,  II).  Such  was  the  acted  metaphor  by  which  he  gave  his 
message  a  spiritual  significance.  He  also  figured  his  suc- 
cessor, when  at  length  he  saw  him,  as  an  atoning  lamb 
(John  i,  29,  36)  ;  a  symbol  drawn  from  the  priestly  ideas 
familiar  to  all  Jews,  with  perhaps  a  reminiscence  of  Isa.  liii, 
7.  On  the  principles  involved  in  these  symbols  John  met 
the  prevailing  expectation,  proclaiming  that  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  was  at  hand.  When  questioned  who  he  was,  how- 
ever, he  denied  all  claim  to  being  the  Messiah,  or  Elijah, 
or  any  other  ancient  prophet  (John  i,  19-27).  He  was  only 
the  Voice,  he  said,  to  proclaim  the  Coming  One,  and  a 
Mightier  than  he  was  to  succeed  him.  John's  personal  char- 
acter, therefore,  in  its  complete  self-effacement,  precluded  all 
idea  of  inaugurating  a  new  order  by  revolution  or  violence 
except  the  spiritual  revolution  involved  in  repentance.  The 
preparation  he  advocated  was  not  of  national  insurgency 
nor  of  any  concerted  movement,  but  of  the  individual  mind 
and  heart. 

The  substance  and  tone  of  John's  preaching  corresponded 

to  the  austerity  of  his  life.     It  was  the  kind  of  message 

Substance      natural  to  one  who,  living  apart  from  men  and 

and  Tone  of    their  affairs,  lacked  sympathy  with  them  ;  in  this 

essage   j-ggp^^^j-   jjj^g   j.|-j^|-  q£   }^jg  prophetic  predecessors 

Elijah  and  Amos.  It  was  stern  and  minatory ;  demanding 
repentance ;  pronouncing  censure  and  judgment ;  sparing 
none  on  account  of  family  or  race  or  position.  The  coming 
kingdom  he  portrayed  in  terms  of  doom  and  punishment, 
and  the  Coming  One  as  a  bringer  of  vengeance  and  severity. 

[533] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

The  Christ,  in  his  anticipation,  was  to  be  not  the  Friend 
and  Brother  of  mankind,  but  the  Chastiser  and  Judge ;  and 
the  regime  corresponding  was  figured  as  an  ax  ready  to  hew 
down  an  unfruitful  tree,  and  as  a  fan  which  would  separate 
wheat  from  chaff  that  the  latter  might  be  burned.  It  was 
the  sternness  of  the  old  Jewish  dispensation  concentrated 
into  a  threat  of  retribution  and  doom.  For  the  ancient  idea 
of  the  day  of  Jehovah  men's  newer  imagination  had  sub- 
stituted the  idea  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;.  but  like  the 
prophets  before  him  John  attacked  their  too  easy  optimism 
by  warning  them  that  if  they  pictured  it  in  colors  of  fancy 
rather  than  principle  they  were  liable  to  find  it  a  dies  ir(Z. 

Note.  In  the  most  striking  Old  Testament  prophecies  of  a  coming 
Personage,  or  of  a  regenerating  people,  there  is  a  note  of  severity 
mingled  with  the  beneficence;  cf.  Isa.  xi,  1-5,  and  especially  verse  4, 
which  was  in  John's  mind.  See  also  Isa.  xli,  15,  where  that  severity  is 
predicated  of  the  people,  and  xlix,  2,  where  the  Servant  of  Jehovah 
himself  speaks.  The  Day  of  Jehovah,  also,  was  divested  of  its  idle  opti- 
mism and  pictured  in  terms  of  judgment  and  wrath  ;  see  Amos  v,  18  ; 
Joel  i,  15  ;  Zeph.  i,  14,  15  ;   Isa.  xiii,  6,  9. 

John  the  Baptist,  one  of  the  noblest,  is  also  one  of  the 
most  pathetic  figures  of  history.  He  is  a  solitary  represent- 
At  the  End  ative  of  the  primitive  prophetic  ideal  ;  standing 
of  an  Era  between  the  old  era  and  the  new,  just  where  his 
prophecy  must  maintain  its  eternal  validity,  and  yet  where 
the  fulfillment,  coming  immediately  after,  makes  the  proph- 
ecy itself  obsolete.  This  is  expressed  in  the  tribute  that 
Jesus  paid  to  him  :  "  Among  them  that  are  born  of  women 
there  hath  not  risen  a  greater  than  John  the  Baptist ;  yet 
he  that  is  but  little  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  greater 
than  he"  (Matt,  xi,  11). 

From  the  literary  point  of  view  John's  announcement  of 
the  Christ  kingdom  is  an  instance  of  the  foreshortening  of 
prophetic  vision,  such  as  we  have  already  noted  in  the  earlier 
prophets.    He  Sees  the  kingdom  as  it  is  destined  ultimately 

[533] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

to  be,  sternly  triumphant  over  eviL  He  sees  the  final  vic- 
tory of  right  and  truth.  But  he  has  the  idea  that  this  must 
come  by  revolution,  by  a  sudden  catastrophe ;  and  this  fills 
all  his  field  of  vision.  The  long,  slow  means  by  which  the 
new  order  must  be  brought  about,  the  growing  spirit  of  good- 
will and  fellowship  by  which  alone  such  a  kingdom  can  pre- 
vail, he  has  not  yet  discovered.  His  imagination  has  fed 
itself  on  the  sternness  of  the  old  regime,  and  his  sense  of 
the  power  of  love  and  good-will  is  undeveloped.  Nor  can  he 
realize  this  until  he  sees  it  actually  embodied  in  the  life  and 
work  of  his  successor,  and  then,  indeed,  only  dimly.  So  even 
after  he  has  proclaimed  and  identified  Jesus  as  the  Christ 
he  falls  into  doubt  whether  after  all  he  was  right,  and  from 
the  prison  to  which  his  faithful  preaching  has  brought  him 
sends  to  Jesus  asking,  "  Art  thou  he  that  cometh,  or  look 
we  for  another.?"  (Matt,  xi,  3).  Jesus'  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion is  merely  to  enumerate  the  various  kinds  of  good  work 
he  is  doing,  as  if  bidding  John  judge  for  himself  whether 
these  fulfill  Messianic  conditions. 

II 

The  Old  Order  Changes.  The  coming  of  Jesus,  as  his- 
tory proves,  was  the  coming  of  a  radically  new  order  and 
emphasis  of  things,  wherein  all  that  was  good  in  the  old 
remained  as  valid  and  integral  as  ever.  In  that  transition 
the  old  order  insensibly  passed  away,  or  rather  became 
absorbed  in  the  new.  In  other  words,  the  coming  of  the 
Messiah,  with  all  that  it  meant,  though  it  eventually  caused 
a  revolution  in  men's  minds,  was  at  first  an  event  as  natural 
and  unnoticed  as  an  event  of  ordinary  life.  Of  the  Servant 
of  Jehovah,  who  was  held  to  be  a  prophetic  type  of  the 
Messiah,  the  Second  Isaiah  had  said,  "  He  hath  no  form 
nor  comeliness ;  and  when  we  see  him,  there  is  no  beauty 
that  we  should  desire  him  "  (Isa.  liii,  2).  The  case  of  Jesus' 
coming  was  analogous.     It  was  not  by  display  or  external 

[534] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

claims  that  men  were  to  recognize  and  accept  him,  but  by 
the  intrinsic  worth  and  power  that  were  in  him,  as  seen  by 
honest  and  pure-minded  men. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  changed  order,  the  Coming  One 
whom  John  announced  and  the  Jewish  people  expected  must 
The  Christ-  somehow  be  recognized  and  identified  when  he 
Problem  came.  But  the  very  idea  of  such  a  Personage 
was  vague,  and  must  be  formed  ;  was  crude,  and  must  be 
freed  from  alloy ;  was  hazy  with  .ages  of  dim  imagination, 
and  must  be  resolved  into  an  object  of  common  life.  John's 
own  identification  of  him  was  made  not  from  personal 
acquaintance,  but  from  a  mystic  sign  (see  John  i,  31,  32). 
All  that  the  Christ  was  to  do  and  be  was  yet  to  be  revealed  ; 
and  even  John,  as  we  have  seen  (Matt,  xi,  2),  became  doubt- 
ful of  his  own  identification.  Meanwhile,  if  Jesus  was  indeed 
the  Coming  One,  how  should  he  meet  men's  expectation  in 
such  a  way  that  they  should  not  misapprehend  or  misuse 
the  fulfillment  of  their  hopes,  and  that  the  idea  of  what  the 
Messiah  and  his  kingdom  essentially  are  should  be  formed  in 
right  principle  and  proportion  ?  Such  was  the  problem  which 
Jesus  at  the  outset  of  his  ministry  had  to  raise  and  solve. 

The  solution  of  it  was  the  simplest  and  sanest  possible ; 
a  model  *oi  quiet  wisdom  and  good  sense. 

To  begin  with,  he  came  assuming  nothing.  He  went  from 
Galilee  to  John's  baptism  as  a  man  of  the  common  people, 
a  layman,  a  carpenter  from  the  obscure  town  of  Nazareth. 
He  did  not  assume  to  be  the  Messiah  nor  claim  any  superi- 
ority to  ordinary  manhood.  He  left  that  rather  for  men  to 
find  out  from  their  own  recognition  of  him.  The  attesting 
sign  of  his  unique  greatness,  and  the  voice  from  heaven, 
were  personal  revelations  perceived  only  by  him  and  John 
(Matt,  iii,  16,  17;  Mark  i,  10,  11  ;  John  i,  33,  34).  Nor, 
on  the  other  hand,  did  he  assume  not  to  be  the  Messiah. 
Rather,  the  words  he  spoke  and  the  works  he  did  corre- 
sponded naturally  to  a  more  than  human  greatness  in  him. 

[535] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

He  simply  lived  that  wise,  balanced,  consistent  life  which 
men  came  to  recognize  as  the  normal  life  of  manhood,  and 
let  that  speak  for  itself  ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  if  occasions 
of  supernatural  wisdom  and  power  came  his  way  they  were 
used  as  a  matter  of  course,  as  belonging  naturally  to  his 
plane  of  being.  It  was  all  regarded  as  in  the  course  and 
compass  of  a  true  human  life.  The  answer  which  Jesus 
himself  gave  at  the  end  to  Pilate,  when  the  latter  asked  him 
whether  he  was  really  a  kiag,  kept  itself  within  human  terms. 
"'  To  this  end  have  I  been  born,"  he  said,  "  and  to  this  end 
am  I  come  into  the  world,  that  I  should  bear  witness  unto 
the  truth  "  (John  xviii,  37).  To  be  a  true  man,  neither  shirk- 
ing nor  transcending  the  claims  of  true  manhood,  was  his 
simple  and  consistent  answer  to  the  expectations  of  his  age. 

Note.  That  Jesus'  design  was  not  only  to  meet  and  satisfy  but  also 
to  correct  and  clarify  men's  expectations  is  indicated  by  the  course  he 
took.  To  quote  from  H.  B.  Sharman  :  "  If  he  considered  himself  called 
to  be  the  Christ  of  expectation,  no  harm  could  come  from  being  acknowl- 
edged as  such ;  if,  on  the  other  hand,  he  was  conscious  of  being  pos- 
sessed by  new  conceptions,  he  would  hardly  choose  to  make  claims  or 
awaken  hopes  by  talking  in  Messianic  phraseology."  ^ 

From  the  outset  of  his  ministry  the  human  life  presented 
itself  to  him,  and  he  in  turn  presented  it  to  men,  as  a  kind 
of  problem  to  be  solved,  with  its  questions  of  order  and 
emphasis,  its  progressive  stages,  its  proper  coordination  of 
elements.  For  this  purpose  he  chose  disciples  to  be  with 
him,  observers  and  learners,  taking  them  into  a  sort  of  part- 
nership, as  if  all  were  to  work  out  the  problem  together  and 
all  were  to  share  in  its  avails.  In  other  words,  the  Christ- 
problem  was  propounded  to  the  world  as  an  all-men's  prob- 
lem, and  not  as  the  monopoly  of  one ;  and  to  every  man  its 
duties  and  possibilities  were  freely  open.  Thus  his  ministry 
was  in  the  most  valid  sense  the  translation  of  the  Christ- 
idea  into  terms  of  the  noblest  and  deepest  manhood. 

^  Biblical  IVorlJ,  January,  1910,  p.  60. 
[536] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 


III 


Initiating  the  Christ-Idea.  How  Jesus  chose  to  work  out 
the  problem  of  his  mission,  by  identifying  the  Messianic  hfe 
with  the  typical  life  of  manhood  and  carrying  this  to  its 
height,  may  be  seen,  in  its  beginnings,  in  some  of  the  early 
experiences  of  his  ministry. 

While  John  the  Baptist  was  preaching  and  making  dis- 
ciples, Jesus  came  to  him  ;  not,  however,  to  become  his 
His  Baptism  disciplc,  but  to  receive  baptism  at  his  hands 
and  its  (Matt,  iii,  13-17;  Mark  i,  9-1 1  ;  Luke  iii,  21,  22). 

^^"^  According  to  St.  Matthew's  account  John  was  re- 

luctant to  baptize  Jesus,  recognizing  that  in  the  case  of  one 
so  exalted  as  he  the  symbolism  of  the  rite  was  meaningless. 
Jesus,  however,  interpreting  it  for  himself  as  the  fulfillment 
of  a  righteous  requirement,  insisted  on  his  baptism  as  a 
means  of  identifying  himself  with  all  who  would  accept  the 
ordinance  (Matt,  iii,  15).  It  was  his  first  public  act  of  tak- 
ing man's  duty  without  assuming  to  be  more  than  man  ; 
his  symbolic  way  of  saying  that  his  life's  problem  required 
not  a  break  with  the  past  or  with  men's  good  customs,  but 
a  fulfillment  of  all  its  good  promise.  It  was  immediately 
answered  by  recognition  from  heaven.  He  was  aware  of 
the  form  of  a  dove  resting  upon  him  (a  new  symbolism), 
and  a  voice  saying,  "'  Thou  art  my  beloved  Son,  in  thee 
I  am  well  pleased  "  (Mark  i,  1 1  ;  cf.  Psa.  ii,  7  ;  Isa.  xlii,  i). 
It  is  of  no  importance  to  inquire  whether  or  not  more  per- 
sons than  Jesus  and  John  were  aware  of  this  supernatural  sign 
(cf.  John  i,  32).  Enough  that  Jesus  himself  was  conscious 
of  his  unique  distinction,  and  that  this  was  the  dominating 
element  in  his  life's  problem.  To  him  the  essence  of  Messiah- 
ship  was  to  be  the  Son  of  God.  It  was  the  assurance  of 
this  that  guaranteed  his  high  mission  in  the  world.  Thence- 
forth he  lived  and  worked  in  the  spirit. of  that  idea.  As 
Son  of  God  he  was  to  be  the  embodiment  of  the  Father's 

[537] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

nature  and  will  and  grace  ;  to  reproduce  perfectly,  as  it  were, 
the  family  likeness  and  character. 

The  first  act  of  Jesus  after  his  baptism  indicates  his  sense 
of  the  tremendous  life  problem  involved  in  being  the  Son  of 
His  wuder-  God  (Matt,  iv,  i-ii  ;  Mark  i,  12,  13  ;  Luke  iv, 
ness  Ordeal  1-13).  "  Straightway  the  spirit  driveth  him  forth 
into  the  wilderness," — in  such  strong  phrase  St.  Ma];k  de- 
scribes the  mysterious  impulse  that  possessed  him.  It  seems 
the  evangelist's  way  of  describing  how  deep  was  Jesus'  crav- 
ing for  solitude  and  for  opportunity  to  think  out  the  career 
that  his  divine  distinction  entailed.  The  Son  of  God  must 
see  and  choose  the  godlike  way  of  impressing  himself  upon 
men  and  of  building  a  kingdom  in  the  world ;  for  to  be  the 
Son  of  God  included  all  this. 

If  the  temptation  of  Jesus  was  a  fact,  the  account  of  it 
must  have  come  ultimately  from  him  ;  for  no  reporter  or 
observer  was  present.  The  terms  in  which  it  is  described 
must  therefore  be  such  as  are  at  the  same  time  most  real 
to  him  and  most  apprehensible  to  men.  But  the  depth  of 
such  an  inner  experience  is  beyond  the  power  of  literal 
words  to  convey.  Each  individual  temptation  is  told  rather 
in  a  kind  of  parable  or  symbol,  whose  scope  or  principle  is 
much  greater  than  a  single  act.  The  symbolic  act  suggested 
—  making  bread  of  stones,  casting  one's  self  from  a  pin- 
nacle, giving  formal  obeisance  to  a  potentate  —  may  indeed 
seem  odd  and  arbitrary,  until  we  realize  the  spirit  of  it ;  and 
then  nothing  can  be  more  real  and  significant. 

The  temptations  thus  reported  of  Jesus  all  bore  on  the 
question  how  the  Son  of  God  should  use  his  power.  The 
reiterated  plea  of  the  evil  spirit  was,  "'  If  thou  be  the  Son 
of  God,"  do  this  and  that.  Jesus*  answer  in  each  case  limits 
itself  to  what  man  should  be  and  do.  Jesus  will  not  use  his 
divine  endowment  in  a  way  that  humanity  cannot  share  in 
or  benefit  by ;  nor  will  he  yield  to  worldly  and  selfish  prin- 
ciples of  mastership.    To  do  any  of  these  proposed  things 

[538] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

would  at  once  put  him  on  a  plane  of  living  where  humanity 
could  not  be  at  one  with  him  ;  and  his  sense  of  divinity  im- 
pelled him  rather  to  union  with  all  and  to  fellowship  in  good 
works.  His  answers  to  Satan,  all  quoted  from  Scripture  and 
from  a  single  book  of  Scripture  (namely,  Deuteronomy ;  cf. 
Deut,  viii,  3  ;  vi,  16  ;  vi,  13  ;  x,  20),^  are  but  a  recourse  to 
the  store  of  literary  guidance  that  has  long  been  available  to 
every  man.  So  in  all  his  temptations,  though  he  is  aware  that 
unlimited  power  and  privilege  are  his,  he  makes  the  use  of 
it  most  godlike  by  most  truly  observing  human  limitations. 

After  his  return  from  the  forty  days'  ordeal  of  the  wilder- 
ness, Jesus'  first  visit  was  to  the  scene  of  his  baptism,  where 
His  Ministry  J*^^"^  ^^^  ^^^^^  making  disciples.  Here  he  began  a 
of  Familiar  ministry,  not  officially,  as  if  he  would  be  either  a 
ip  Y^y^oi  or  coadjutor  to  John,  but  in  the  private  way 
of  personal  intercourse  and  conversation  (John  i,  19-iv,  42). 
The  gospel  of  John  gives  this  part  of  his  history  ;  unmen- 
tioned  by  the  other  evangelists,  perhaps  because  it  was  so 
private  and  domestic,  or  more  likely  because  the  disciples 
from  whom  the  synoptic  Gospels  came  were  not  yet  called. 
As  Jesus  mingled  with  the  crowd  at  the  Jordan,  John  the 
Baptist  immediately  recognized  him  as  the  one  who  had  been 
supernaturally  pointed  out ;  and  two  of  his  disciples,  detach- 
ing themselves  from  the  company,  followed  Jesus.  Three 
were  added  to  their  number  on  this  and  the  succeeding  day, 
as  they  journeyed  northward  toward  Galilee. 

So  his  first  appeal  was  to  young  men  of  high  and  pure 
ideals,  who  obeyed  the  attraction  of  his  personality  and 
attached  themselves  to  him  as  companions  and  learners. 
Some  of  them,  it  would  seem,  were  acquaintances  (cf.  John  i, 
45,  where  Jesus  is  spoken  of  as  well  known),  who  first  be- 
came aware  of  their  neighbor's  high  distinction  by  the  testi- 
mony of  John,  which  they  seem  to  have  accepted  as  a  matter 
of  course, 

^  See  above,  p.  227. 
[539] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

His  fame  as  a  teacher  and  worker  of  signs  (as  the  author 
of  the  Fourth  Gospel  calls  his  miracles)  rapidly  spread  both 
in  Galilee  and  Jerusalem,  to  which  latter  place  he  went  to 
attend  a  feast  and  meet  the  leaders  of  the  nation  (see  John 
ii,  13).  All  this,  until  John's  work  was  broken  off  by  his 
imprisonment  (see  Matt,  iv,  12),  may  be  regarded  as  the 
private  and  domestic  preliminary  to  Jesus'  ministry,  while 
he  was,  so  to  speak,  broaching  his  ideas  among  those  who 
would  respond  to  them  most  simply  and  candidly.  It  is  in 
these  early  months  of  his  work  that  we  meet  with  the  ingenu- 
ous young  men  who  became  his  most  intimate  companions  ; 
with  his  family  circle  of  mother  and  kinsfolk  at  Cana  and 
Capernaum  (John  ii,  1-12);  with  men  of  open  mind  and 
thought  like  Nicodemus  (John  iii) ;  and  with  people  of  less 
cultured  and  sophisticated  mind  like  the  woman  and  people 
of  Samaria  (John  iv).  The  prevailing  note  of  this  period  of 
his  career  is  familiar  intercourse  and  companionship ;  as  if 
he  would  first  get  acquainted  with  the  various  classes  with 
whom  he  was  to  deal. 

In  course  of  time,  after  his  distinctive  work  had  revealed 
its  character,  he  came  to  Nazareth,  where  his  early  life  had 
His  Mani-  ^^^"  passed,  and  where  his  old  neighbors  were 
festo  at  naturally  eager  to  see  their  townsman  who  was 
Nazareth  becoming  SO  famous  (Luke  iv,  16-30).  On  the 
Sabbath,  as  his  custom  was,  he  entered  the  synagogue  and, 
standing  up  to  read,  selected  and  applied  to  himself  the 
passage  found  in  Isaiah  Ixi,  1-3,  wherein  the  Servant  of 
Jehovah,  described  by  the  Second  Isaiah,  is  represented  as 
taking  upon  himself  and  defining  the  spirit  of  his  ministry. 
This  reading,  and  the  accompanying  comment,  may  be  taken 
as  Jesus'  conception  X)f  the  Messiahship  to  which  he  was 
anointed,  told  to  those  who  knew  him  best  and  had  always 
known  him. 

By  this  manifesto,  instead  of  connecting  his  work  with 
the  popular  apocalyptic  visions,  with  their  ambitious  notions 

[540] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

of  a  spectacular  kingdom  and  a  despotic  monarch,  he  iden- 
tified himself  definitely  with  the  meekest  and  most  unob- 
trusive character  portrayed  in  Scripture :  the  Servant  of 
Jehovah,  whose  spirit  of  life  was  wisdom,  sympathy,  and 
silent  sacrifice  (cf.  Isa.  xlii,  1-4  ;  Matt,  xii,  18-21).  He  made 
no  assumption  of  grandeur  or  dignity.  He  claimed  only  a 
career  of  good-will,  good  works,  and  universal  helpfulness. 

To  identify  himself,  however,  with  one  of  the  most  sacred 
prophecies  seemed  to  his  townsmen  too  great  an  effrontery. 
Besides,  he  had  declined  to  work  for  mere  display  such 
miracles  as  he  had  wrought  elsewhere.  So  they  would  not 
listen  to  him  ;  and  his  subsequent  ministry  had  to  be  carried 
on  away  from  his  home. 

Throughout  his  ministry,  as  these  and  many  other  inci- 
dents show,  Jesus,  though  conscious  all  the  while  of  his 
His  Adopted  Messianic  distinction,  was  concerned  that  that  fact 
'^^*'®  should  not  be  proclaimed  or  assumed  on  his  part, 

but  recognized  on  the  part  of  men.  He  was  concerned  also 
that  men  should  know  and  honor  him  not  for  his  super- 
natural powers  nor  for  any  display  of  greatness  but  for  the 
intrinsic  truth  of  manhood  that  they  saw  in  him.  Thus,  as 
they  companied  familiarly  with  him,  they  were  getting  some- 
thing beyond  personal  acquaintance  and  intimacy.  They  were 
learning  what  manhood  raised  to  its  noblest  powers  is,  and 
what  life  is  under  the  leading  of  the  divine  Spirit,  in  the 
works  and  experiences  of  human  life.  It  was  this  that  he 
had  at  heart.  He  desired  that  the  Christ  men  came  to 
recognize  in  him  should  be  the  essential  Christ  and  not 
depend  on  his  fame  or  his  profession.  Only  so  could  it  be 
of  practical  and  personal  value  to  them. 

So,  though  when  required  on  oath  to  acknowledge  him- 
self he  said  plainly  that  he  was  Son  of  God  and  Messiah 
(see  Matt,  xxvi,  63,  64),  yet  the  title  by  which  he  habitually 
called  himself  was  Son  of  Man  ;  by  which  he  would  seem 
to  have  meant  the  true  and  typical  man,  or,  as  we  should 

•[541] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

say,  manhood  completely  realized.  Even  this  designation 
he  took  not  assertively  but  indirectly ;  speaking  of  the  Son 
of  Man  in  the  third  person,  as  if  the  latter  were  an  idealized 
being  whose  character  was  to  be  manifested  through  disci- 
pline and  experience.  The  question  what  the  true  man  should 
do  and  be  seemed  to  be  on  his  mind  at  all  stages  of  his  career, 
and  for  other  dignity  apart  from  this  he  had  no  ambition. 

In  adopting  this  title  Jesus  chose  a  term  which  was  com- 
paratively unworn,  though  it  does  occur  with  somewhat  hazy 
meaning  in  some  passages  of  the  apocalyptic  literature.  It 
was  a  term,  too,  which  as  used  would  rouse  no  false  or  pre- 
mature connotations  in  men's  minds.  This  was  an  impor- 
tant point  gained.  To  have  called  himself  the  Messiah  at 
the  outset  would  have  been  to  burden  himself  with  a  title 
which  men  had  already  filled  with  their  own  preconceived 
ideas,  and  it  would  have  been  hard  if  not  impossible  to  divest 
it  of  accretions  and  infuse  the  true  meaning,  both  human 
and  divine,  into  it.  To  have  called  himself  the  Son  of  God 
would  have  been  at  once  to  separate  his  personality  from  the 
interests  of  common  humanity  and  to  have  transferred  him- 
self to  a  sphere  above  them.  But  in  calling  himself  Son  of 
Man,  Jesus  was  adopting  a  term  by  which  he  could  make 
common  cause  with  all  men  ;  and  by  filling  the  idea  with 
the  fuller  meaning  of  his  life  he  could  raise. it,  and  with  it 
the  whole  conception  of  manhood  worth,  to  its  highest 
power,  where,  indeed,  it  would  be  equivalent  to  the  other 
terms,  "  Christ  "  or  "  Messiah,"  and  "  Son  of  God."  It  was 
really  the  most  modest  claim  that  he  coiild  make,  considering 
what  he  was,  but  as  he  translated  it  into  actual  life  it  con- 
tained the  values  of  the  highest.  And  he  lived  as  if  it  were 
his  one  business  on  earth  to  explore  and  realize  to  the  full 
manhood's  possibilities  as  actuated  by  the  Spirit  of  God. 

Notes,  i.  Conventional  Use  of  the  Term  "Son  of  God.  ^^  The  term 
"  Son  of  God  "  was  already  much  worn  in  the  world's  use,  as  a  compli- 
mentary epithet  for  great  rulers  and  leaders.    It  was  in  some  such  vague 

[542]- 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

sense,  doubtless,  that  a  Roman  centurion  was  moved  to  call  Jesus  a  son 
of  God  (Matt,  xxvii,  54)  on  witnessing  the  portents  attending  his  death. 
2.  Jesus''  Use  of  the  Tenn  "  Son  of  Man.''  "  We  must  never  forget," 
says  Professor  Sanday,  "  that  this  is  the  name  which  our  Lord  chose 
specially  for  Himself,  and  which  He  appears  to  have  preferred  above 
every  other.  The  other  names  He  purposely  kept  in  the  background ; 
but  this  He  used  freely  and  without  hesitation,  though  even  this  He  em- 
ploys objectively  and  in  the  third  person,  hinting  rather  than  expressly 
claiming  that  in  speaking  of  the  Son  of  Man  He  is  speaking  of  Himself.^ 

II.  The  Literary  Element  in  Jesus'  Ministry    • 

Jesus  himself  wrote  nothing.  What  record  we  have  of 
his  words  and  works  comes  from  reports  made  in  the  Chris- 
tian community,  for.  teaching  and  catechizing  purposes,  and 
traceable  to  about  a  generation  after  his  death.  This  record, 
which  we  have  in  the  four  gospels,  consists  of  oral  dis- 
courses, given  mostly  in  a  familiar  and  conversational  way, 
with  no  apparent  attempt  at  literary  or  rhetorical  effect.  Any 
thought,  indeed,  of  self-conscious  or  academic  art  in  con- 
nection with  Jesus'  words  is  almost  like  a  profanation.  As 
we  study  them  more  intimately,  however,  we  become  aware 
how  exactly  they  are  adapted  to  their  subject,  their  occasion, 
and  their  audience.  This  is  their  obvious  literary  excellence  ; 
and  this,  of  course,  belongs  to  that  perfection  of  art  which 
conceals  the  processes  of  art  and  identifies  it  with  nature. 

That  Jesus'  discourses  produced  on  his  discriminating 
hearers  the  effect  of  fine  and  finished  utterance  is  indicated 
in  the  question  asked  about  him  by  the  Jews  of  the  capital : 
"  How  knoweth  this  man  letters,  having  never  learned  ?  " 
(John  vii,  15),  and  by  the  answer  of  certain  officers  sent  to 
arrest  him  :  "  Never  man  so  spake  "  (John  vii,  46).  The 
same  thought  was  dimly  in  the  mind  of  the  common  multi- 
tude, though  they  could  not  well  define  it,  when  they 
expressed  their  astonishment  at  the  self-evidencing  charac- 
ter of  his  words,  so  different  from  the  style  of  the  scribes 

1  Sanday,  "  Life  of  Christ  in  Recent  Research,"  pp.  194,  195. 
[  543  ] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

(Matt,  vii,  28,  29).  It  was  a  recognition  of  the  matter  and 
manner  of  his  speech  as  a  prime  Hterary  power. 

The  main  element  of  hterary  perfection  in  Jesus'  words 
is  their  perfect  keeping  ahke  with  a  human  personahty  and 
with  all  that  we  can  conceive  of  the  divine.  The  difficulty 
for  critics  who  would  deny  these  utterances  to  him  is  to  find 
a  writer  great  enough  to  have  invented  them.  Such  a  writer 
must  needs  be  of  Messianic  caliber.  Even  though  trans- 
mitted to  us  through  the  memory  of  his  hearers,  there  is  a 
quality  in  his  words  as  unique  in  literature  as  is  his  person- 
ality in  history  and  human  experience. 

It  does  not  belong  to  the  scope  of  this  book  to  give  in 
analysis  or  systematic  arrangement  the  subject  matter  of  his 
teachings.  We  are  concerned  rather  with  their  literary  rela- 
tions :  that  is,  their  manner  of  expression  and  adaptedness 
to  audience  and  occasion.  To  this  end  we  will  consider 
various  aspects  of  his  teachings,  as  these  were  called  forth 
by  the  circumstances  in  which  he  was  placed. 

I 

His  General  Public  Utterances.  "  These  words  of  mine  " 
{mo?i  tons  logons  toiitous)  is  the  phrase  by  which  Jesus 
refers  to  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  which  he  is  just  finish- 
ing (Matt,  vii,  24,  26).  It  makes  an  unpretending  literary 
claim  for  his  public  speech  :  no  display  of  eloquence,  no 
assumption  of  scholarly  logic  ;  but  just  familiar  talk.  And 
yet  it  has  not  the  loose  discursiveness  of  ordinary  talk  ;  it  is 
close-knit  and  ordered,  and  there  are  no  superfluous  words. 

The  so-called  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  given  most  fully  in 
Matthew  v-vii,  and  in  substance  in  Luke  vi,  20-49,  "^^Y  t>e 
taken  as  the  type  of  discourse  by  which  Jesus  imparted  his 
teaching  to  receptive  and  candid  audiences.  It  was  addressed 
to  his  newly  made  disciples  (see  Matt,  v,  i  ;  Luke  vi,  20) ; 
men  who  had  attached  themselves  to  him  not  out  of  idle 
curiosity  or  with  critical  design,  but  with  desire  to  learn  and 

[544] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

think  for  themselves.  But  it  was  overheard  by  multitudes 
(Matt,  vii,  28  ;  Luke  vi,  17)  ;  for  his  discourses  were  never 
esoteric  nor  contained  things  meant  for  a  mystery  to  one 
class  and  clearness  to  another.  They  were  really  addressed 
to  mankind  in  general,  and  used  the  ideas  current  among 
ordinary  people.  Both  the  disciples  and  the  larger  multi- 
tudes could  be  assumed  to  be  acquainted  with  the  law  and 
with  the  religious  sentiment  of  their  day,  and  it  was  upon 
these  that  he  built  his  teachings. 

It  is  worth  while  to  note  how  the  style  of  Jesus'  public 
utterances  compares  with  the  Old  Testament  types  of  style. 
Comparison  ^^^  ancicnt  prophcts,  addressing  the  nation  as  a 
with  Earlier  whole  and  at  times  of  national  crisis,  were  impas- 
cnpture  sioned,  oratorical,  vehement,  with  a  tendency  to 
the  rhythmical  and  poetic.  The  sages,  or  wise  men,  address- 
ing audiences  in  the  didactic  tone,  developed  the  viashal  or 
proverb,  as  a  vehicle  for  such  utterance,  to  a  fine  artistry  of 
phrasing  and  pointed  sentence  structure  ;  rising  at  times,  as 
in  Job  and  the  first  section  of  Proverbs,  to  sustained  poetic 
sublimity  and  intensity.  The  later  writings,  like  the  viegil- 
loth,  were  to  a  notable  degree  keyed  to  the  more  self- 
conscious  and  refined  literary  forms. ^  In  Jesus'  teaching  we 
find  no  lack  of  poetic  beauty,  or  sturdy  vigor,  or  clean-cut 
phrasing  and  point ;  but  all  this  is  subdued  to  the  tone  of 
the  conversational,  the  familiar,  the  idiom  of  common  life  and 
affairs.  Pascal,  himself  a  master  of  style,  remarks  of  this 
quality:  "Jesus  Christ  said  grand  things  so  simply  that  it 
seems  as  though  he  had  not  thought  about  them,  and  yet  so 
clearly  that  one  sees  he  must  have  reflected  upon  them.  This 
clearness  joined  with  this  simplicity  is  wonderful."  ^  This 
quite  befitted  his  supreme  object,  which  was  to  be  helpful  to 
all  men,  from  the  humblest  up,  to  men  not  in  specialized 
classes  or  as  a  nation,  but  as  living  the  universal  life  of  man. 

1  Cf.  p.  484,  above. 

"^  Pascal,  "  Thoughts,"  Benj.  E.  Smith  trans.,  p.  121. 

[  545  ] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

"What  is  this?  a  new  teaching!"  was  the  response  of 
his  hearers  at  Capernaum  when  they  heard  his  words  in  the 
synagogue  and  saw  them  backed  with  mighty 
with  Current  spiritual  power  (Mark  i,  27).  Of  the  quahties  in 
Methods  j^-^  ggj^gj-^j  pubUc  discourse  which  reveal  him  as 
a  unique  teacher  and  personality,  we  may  here  note  three 
salient  things. 

1.  Their  uniform  employment  of  the  simplest  language 
and  imagery,  dealing  with  plain  truths  of  life.  This  was  a 
new  note  in  his  day  ;  for  the  scribes,  who  were  the  accredited 
teachers,  tended  to  wire-drawn  and  petty  interpretations  of 
the  law  and  to  a  wooden,  academic  style.  Jesus'  discourses 
deal  much  in  the  familiar  analogical  figures  simile  and  meta- 
phor ;  and  these  are  always  drawn  from  everyday  objects 
and  carried  enough  into  detail  to  indicate  the  full  value  of 
their  lesson.  This  may  be  exemplified  by  the  so-called  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount  in  Matthew  v-vii.  After  the  Beatitudes 
(v,  1-12),  which  constitute  a  kind  of  text,  the  discourse  is 
introduced  by  the  metaphors  of  the  salt  and  the  light  (vss. 

•  13-16).  The  detailed  similes  of  the  houses  on  the  rock  and 
on  the  sand  (vii,  24-27),  which  form  the  peroration,  are  a 
summary  and  practical  application  of  the  whole.  The  figures 
of  the  lilies  of  the  field  (vi,  28-30),  of  the  mote  and  the 
beam  (vii,  3-5),  and  of  the  good  and  the  corrupt  trees  (vii, 
18-20)  are  instances  selected  at  random  which  may  show 
how  masterfully  he  employed  homely  imagery  for  the  weighti- 
est thought.  It  was  his  power  to  make  great  elerrtental  truths 
clear  and  self-evidencing  which  called  forth  the  remark 
of  a  biographer,  "The  common  people  heard  him  gladly" 
(Mark,  xii,  37). 

2.  Their  prominently  paradoxical  and  thought-provoking 
cast.  In  the  old  mashal  or  proverb  literature  there  was  often 
cultivated,  for  the  sake  of  stimulating  thought,  a  kind  of  rid- 
dling or  enigma  element ;  one  species  of  mashal,  indeed, 
was  called  hidah,  "  dark  saying  "  (cf.  Prov.  i,  6).    Something 

[546] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

of  this  principle  is  freely  made  use  of  by  Jesus.  He  is  not 
averse  to  using  a  paradox  or  half-truth  when  his  purpose 
of  making  men  think  is  served  thereby.  One  is  aware 
of  this  as  soon  as  one  reflects  on  the  Beatitudes,  which 
ascribe  blessedness  to  just  the  opposite  qualities  from  those 
which  are  usually  accounted  blessed,  —  to  the  poor  in  spirit, 
the  mourners,  the  meek,  the  maligned  and  persecuted.  He 
states  some  of  his  important  teachings,  also,  in  a  form  so 
strange  and  one-sided  as  to  rouse  a  vigorous  protest  in  the 
hearer's  mind,  until  the  meaning  is  subjected  to  a  spiritual 
test.  Such,  for  instance,  are  his  injunction  to  turn  the  left 
cheek  to  him  who  smites  you  on  the  right  (Matt,  v,  39)  ;  his 
remark  that  one  who  follows  him  must  hate  his  nearest 
earthly  kin  (Luke  xiv,  26)  ;  and  his  solemn  declaration, 
which  he  himself  followed  out,  that  he  who  loses  his  life  in 
the  cause  of  truth  shall  find  it  (Matt,  x,  39).  In  all  these,  it 
would  seem,  Jesus  deliberately  accepts  the  risk  of  scorn  and 
misunderstanding,  trusting  to  men's  saner  second  thoughts. 
But  like  all  his  words  they  are  an  appeal  to  men's  spiritual 
good  sense  ;  and  men  of  a  spirit  like  his  will  understand 
and  appropriate  them.  Our  many  centuries  of  conversance 
with  them  have  adjusted  our  minds  to  these  words  of  his  ; 
but  as  first  uttered  they  must  have  been  to  a  degree  startling 
and  mystifying. 

3.  Their  absoluteness  of  assertion  and  tone.  This  is  espe- 
cially notable  in  the  section  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
wherein  Jesus  deals  with  the  Mosaic  law  and  with  men's 
traditions  (Matt,  v,  17-48).  Of  the  hard  and  stereotyped 
ideas  that  prevailed  concerning  murder,  adultery,  divorce, 
oath-taking,  retaliation,  his  pronouncements  were  :  "  Ye  have 
heard  that  it  was  said  by  them  of  old  time,  .  .  .  but  /  say 
unto  you  "  ;  thus  correcting  and  reversing  long-established 
ideas  and  customs  on  his  own  personal  assertion.  His  first 
person  singular  is  not  egoism ;  it  is  spiritual  authority.  In 
the  same  way,  by  both  precept  and  example,  he  took  such 

[547] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

liberties  as  a  sound  spirit  dictated  with  the  unwritten  customs 
of  the  sabbath  and  of  fasting  (cf.  Matt,  xii,  i-8  ;  Mark  ii, 
1 8,  19)  ;  making  these  things  what  they  were  meant  to  be, 
not  ends  of  Hfe  or  cultus  but  means  and  factors  of  mercy 
and  sincerity.  All  this,  which  handled  old  traditions  so  freely, 
was  really  in  the  interests  of  a  more  perfectly  fulfilled  law 
and  a  higher  because  more  inward  standard  of  righteousness. 
Jesus'  absoluteness  of  assertion  is  founded  on  truth  which 
once  heard  cannot  be  gainsaid.  The  sound  sense  of  man, 
seeing  it,  intuitively  assents  to  it.  Hence  Jesus  does  not 
present  truth  by  process  of  argumentation  or  philosophy,  as 
if  it  had  to  pass  through  uncertain  logical  stages.  It  can, 
however,  be  made  clear  by  illustration  and  analogy,  and  these 
means  are  freely  employed.  But  the  inner  logic  of  his  words 
is  intuitive  and  absolute.  Men  cannot  hear  them  without  the 
sense  that  they  are  authoritative  for  conscience,  nor  gainsay 
them  without  doing  violence  to  their  spiritual  nature.  It 
was  this  absolute  quality  of  his  words,  especially,  which  so 
contrasted  Jesus'  method  with  that  of  the  scribes. 

n 

His  Teaching  in  Parables.  There  came  a  time  in  Jesus' 
ministry  when,  rather  abruptly  it  w^ould  seem,  he  changed 
the  manner  of  his  teaching.  The  disciples,  indeed,  who 
were  in  constant  intercourse  with  him,  he  continued  to 
instruct  by  literal  and  expository  methods,  giving  them  the 
more  inward  elements  of  his  truth  as  they  were  able  to 
apprehend  them.  This  is  especially  noticeable  in  the  dis- 
courses reported  in  the  gospel  of  John  ;  and  even  these  he 
regarded  as  relatively  primitive  (cf.  John  iii,  12  ;  xvi,  12). 
For  the  floating  multitude,  however,  who  might  hear  him 
only  casually,  or  be  actuated  merely  by  the  curiosity  or  en- 
thusiasm of  the  crowd,  he  put  his  teaching  in  the  form  of 
parable.  This  new  departure,  with  the  first  group  of  para- 
bles thus  given,  is  narrated  in  Matthew  xiii  and  Mark  iv. 

[548] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

The  new  style  of  discourse  at  once  excited  inquiry. 
"  Why  speakest  thou  unto  them  in  parables  ?  "  the  disciples 
asked  Jesus  when  they  were  alone  with  him  again.  His 
answer  indicated  that  he  had  adopted  that  manner  of  teach- 
ing in  order  to  discriminate  between  different  kinds  of 
hearers  :  between  those  who  were  in  an  inner  circle  with 
him  and  outsiders.  "  To  you,"  he  said,  "  has  been  given  the 
secret  of  the  kingdom  of  God  ;  but  to  the  outsiders  it  must 
all  come  in  a  Parable,  that,  as  Isaiah  said,  they  may  see 
and  yet  not  see  "  ^  (Mark  iv,  1 1  ;  cf.  Isa.  vi,  9,  10).  With  a 
similar  implication  he  had  ended  his  first  parable  with  the 
words,  "  He  that  hath  ears,  let  him  hear"  (Matt,  xiii,  9)  ; 
as  if  his  parables  required  a  peculiar  sense  of  things  to 
understand. 

In  the  parables  of  Jesus  we  see  the  highest  development 
of  the  viashal,  or  analogical  type  of  literary  discourse. 
The  Wisdom  This,  it  will  be  remembered,  is  the  vehicle  of  the 
of  the  Method  Hebrew  Wisdom,  employed  in  various  forms  in 
the  Old  Testament,  mostly  in  maxims  or  proverbs.  The 
parables  of  Jesus  are  not  works  of  fancy,  like  fables,  wherein, 
as  in  Jotham's  parable  (Judg.  ix,  8-15),  inanimate  things  are 
personified  and  talk  ;  not  allegories,  like  Our  Lady  Wisdom 
in  Proverbs  (Prov.  viii,  ix),  wherein  abstract  qualities  figure 
as  characters:  they  are  literal  situations  and  incidents  of  every- 
day life,  so  told  as  to  suggest  an  inner  and  spiritual  lesson. 
Thus  for  the  instruction  of  the  multitudes,  or  as  he  called 
them  "outsiders"  {tois  exo),  he  chose  the  medium  which 
of  all  literary  forms  is  most  attractive,  most  easily  grasped 
and  remembered,  —  namely,  the  story  or  narrative  form. 
So  far  as  form  was  concerned,  a  story  would  be  much  more 
easily  apprehended  than  a  logically  built  or  closely  com- 
pacted discourse  ;  and  thus  its  truth  would  be  available  for 
common  as  well  as  for  cultured  men. 

1  See  Burkitt,  "  The  Gospel  History  and  its  Transmission,"  pp.  84  ff. 
I  have  quoted  his  translation  of  Jesus'  remark. 

[549] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Note.  In  the  section  of  Tennyson's  "  In  Memoriam  "  referred  to  and 
partly  quoted  on  page  527  above,  this  distinction  between  expository  and 
narrative  discourse,  as  related  to  its  intelligibility  for  different  capacities 
of  hearers,  is  thus  described  : 

For  Wisdom  dealt  with  mortal  powers, 
Where  truth  in  closest  words  shall  fail, 
When  truth  embodied  in  a  tale 

Shall  enter  in  at  lowly  doors. 

But  this  is  only  one  side  of  the  matter.  Jesus  adopted 
the  parable  method,  he  said,  in  order  that  the  outsiders 
might  see  and  yet  not  see.  There  was  an  esoteric  purpose 
in  it.  The  story  has  a  meaning  beyond  its  literal  details. 
It  must  be  translated  from  literal  to  spiritual,  or,  as  we  may 
say,  from  outer  realism  to  inner.  To  this  end  the  hearer  is 
not  left  passive  and  merely  receptive  :  he  must  exert  his 
own  powers  of  realization  and  interpretation  to  get  a  spiritual 
value  out  of  it.  And  to  do  this  he  must  approach  it  in  the 
spirit  of  it.  The  parables  are  like  a  combination  lock,  which 
cannot  be  opened  until  one  has  the  right  combination ; 
then  all  is  clear,  and  its  truth  is  grasped  in  fit  relation  and 
balance.^ 

There  is  wisdom  also  in  its  lack  of  argumentative  or 
impassioned  appeal.  Being  a  story  true  to  life,  it  cannot 
be  denied  or  disproved.  The  hearer  can  take  exception 
only  to  what  he  imagines  it  to  mean,  not  to  what  is  literally 
said.  At  the  same  time,  being  an  appeal  to  the  reflective 
powers,  the  parable,  as  such,  radiates  rather  light  than  heat. 
There  is  nothing  in  it  to  incite  passion,  no  catchwords  of 
fanaticism  or  revolution.  The  parables  are  thus  a  simple 
yet  masterly  means  of  getting  the  rank  and  file  of  the  peo- 
ple to  think.  They  listen  in  dispassionate  mood,  as  people 
who  are  merely  entertained  ;  and  yet  until  they  are  spirit- 
ually adjusted  to  the  implication  of  the  story,  they  do  not 
understand. 

1  Cf.  above,  p.  452. 
[550] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

It  was  a  time  when  just  such  wisdom  as  this  was  impera- 
tively needed.  A  main  reason  why  Jesus  chose  the  parable 
The  Secret  of  form  of  public  teaching  just  at  this  stage  of  his 
the  Kingdom  ministry  relates  to  the  great  expectation  which 
was  prevalent,  and  whose  fulfillment  both  he  and  John  had 
announced  as  near  at  hand.  That  expectation  was  now  to 
be  met  and  its  idea  clarified  :  the  idea  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven.  His  ministry  was  just  then  at  the  height  of  its 
popularity,  and  crowds  were  pressing  upon  him  to  hear  his 
words  and  see  his  works  of  power.  His  first  parables  had 
to  be  spoken  from  a  boat,  the  crowd  upon  the  shore  was  so 
great  (Matt,  xiii,  2).  Their  interest  in  him  was  the  interest 
of  the  crowd.  Their  minds  were  inflamed  with  the  notion 
of  a  coming  kingdom  ;  and  he  seemed  to  them  so  eminently 
fitted  to  inaugurate  it  that,  as  the  Fourth  Gospel  records, 
they  were  minded  to  take  him  by  force  and  make  him  king 
(John  vi,  15).  Their  conceptions  of  a  kingdom,  however, 
were  of  the  rudest  sort.  We  may  describe  them  in  the 
words  of  Dr.  Alfred  Plummer :  "The  ideas  of  the  multi- 
tude," he  says,  "'  were  for  the  most  part  vague  ;  and  in  their 
want  of  knowledge  they  degraded  and  materialized  it.  They 
thought  of  the  Kingdom  as  a  perpetual  banquet.  The  ideas 
of  the  upper  classes  were  more  definite,  but  not  more  spiritual. 
They  thought  of  it  as  a  political  revolution.  Roman  rule 
vv^as  to  be  overthrown,  and  a  Jewish  monarchy  of  great 
magnificence  was  to  be  restored."  ^  These  ideas,  such  as 
they  were,  the  stir  of  the  times  and  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
crowd  had  stimulated  to  the  danger  point.  It  was  a  situa- 
tion wherein  untold  consequences  hung  on  the  wisdom  of 
Jesus'  words  and  acts. 

Here  then,  we  may  truly  say,  was  a  crisis  in  Jesi<i'  career 

of  teaching:  a  supreme  problem  for  literary  sagacity  and  skill. 

The  tense  situation  must  be  dealt  with.    It  would  tolerate 

no  delay  or  evasion.    Those  crude  ideas  must  be  corrected. 

1  Plummer,  "  Commentary  on  Matthew,"  p.  62. 

[551] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Not  only  must  what  was  erroneous  in  them  be  cleared 
away,  but  the  true  conception  must  be  put  in  its  place. 
Jesus  must  define  the  kingdom  in  such  a  way  that  the  com- 
mon people's  enthusiasm,  so  inflammable  and  eager,  should 
be  restrained  until  sane  and  reasonable  thinking  could  set 
in  and  take  control ;  and  at  the  same  time  he  must  impart 
a  wholly  new  principle  and  point  of  view.  Evidently  the 
situation  called  not  for  eloquence  or  impassioned  exhortation. 
The  crowds  must  not  be  incited  to  act  but  sobered  and 
diverted  to  think  ;  and  as  the  upshot  of  their  thinking  they 
must  be  made  to  realize  what  this  kingdom  of  heaven 
essentially  is. 

Accordingly,  Jesus'  earlier  parables,  fitted  to  the  capacity 
of  the  multitude,  devote  themselves  to  explaining,  in  illus- 
trations drawn  from  common  life  and  experience,  what  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  like.  It  is  like  seed  sown ;  like 
growth  from  a  mustard  seed  ;  like  leaven  ;  like  search  for 
a  lost  coin  ;  like  investing  all  one's  property  in  a  precious 
pearl.  It  is  notable  how  many  of  these  parables  of  the 
kingdom,  and  especially  the  early  ones  that  start  the  idea, 
are  concerned  with  the  phenomenon  of  growth,  of  evolution. 
It  is  Jesus'  way  of  showing  men  that  the  kingdom  is  not 
a  spectacular  thing,  coming  upon  men  from  without  and 
astonishing  the  world,  but  a  natural  process  arising  from  a 
new  vital  germ  within  their  hearts.  By  analogies  drawn 
from  various  aspects  of  husbandry  he  shows  that  the  king- 
dom is  '"  like  a  man  sowing  his  seed,  which  then  grows 
from  stage  to  stage  naturally  and  silently,  until  at  last  the 
harvest  is  ripe."  ^  (Cf.  Mark  iv,  26-29.)  From  these  analo- 
gies of  growth,  which  he  simply  suggested,  letting  them 
work  on^the  minds  of  the  crowd,  he  could  go  on  naturally 
in  his  more  literal  expositions  to  teach  that  instead  of  a  sud- 
den and  startling  affair  the  kingdom  was  something  whose 
coming  could  not  be  dated  by  external  signs  at  all,  becauee 

1  Burkitt,  "  The  Gospel  History  and  its  Transmission,"  p.  87. 
[552] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

it  was  within  the  heart  of  man  (Luke  xvii,  20,  21).  And 
instead  of  a  government  under  the  sway  of  the  ambition  or 
self-indulgence  of  rulers,  it  was  a  character  developed  in  the 
heart  of  the  subject,  a  character  growing  by  its  own  inner 
forces  to  noblest  things.  Thus,  to  men  whose  minds  were 
occupied  with  the  gratification  of  the  senses  he  gives  in 
parable  form  the  substance  of  the  idea  later  expressed  by 
St.  Paul,  that  "  the  kingdom  of  God  is  not  eating  and 
drinking,  but  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy 
Spirit"  (Rom.  xiv,  17). 

Nor  was  it  merely  to  the  floating  and  unattached  multitude 
to  whom  the  coming  kingdom  was  a  luxury  and  a  banquet 
From  Lay  to  that  his  parables  were  addressed,  though  he  began 
Learned  ^j(-]-j  thei-n  f  q  gu^h  it  was  fitting  that  the  king- 
dom be  described  in  evolutionary  terms  (seed  sown,  leaven, 
secret  growth),  to  correct  and  mollify  their  fanatical  ideas 
of  revolution.  To  men  of  leading  also,  whose  ideas  of  empire 
were  more  rational,  he  employed  the  same  manner  of  teach- 
ing, in  somewhat  more  elaborately  constructed  parables  ;  his 
object  being  to  regulate  men's  ambitions  and  to  make  them 
sensible  not  only  of  rights  and  emoluments  but  of  duties  and 
responsibilities.  These  worldly  ambitions  were  frequently 
thrust  upon  him,  even  by  the  disciples  who  were  most 
familiar  with  his  way  (see,  for  an  instance,  Mark  x,  35-41). 
Being  so  near  him,  and  seeing  the  grandeur  of  his  person- 
ality, they  took  occasion  to  put  in  their  plea  as  office-seekers 
in  the  coming  monarchy.  Even  after  his  resurrection  these 
material  ideas  still  clung  to  them  ;  and  one  of  his  last  teach- 
ings before  he  ascended  was  to  disabuse  their  minds  of  a 
premature  notion  of  the  kingdom  (Acts  i,  6,  7).  So  to  the 
disciples  themselves,  and  to  all  thinking  men,  many  parables 
were  given  to  illustrate  their  attitude  to  the  kingdom.  He 
taught  them  through  this  analogical  method  that  they  were 
like  stewards,  responsible  for  the  administration  of  property 
(Luke  xvi,  1-12)  ;  like  laborers,  hired  to  work  in  a  vineyard 

[553] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

(Matt.  XX,  1-16)  ;  like  men  intrusted  with  capital  which  was 
to  be  used  in  a  master's  business  (Matt,  xxv,  14-30)  ;  like 
bridesmaids  at  a  wedding,  keeping  their  lamps  filled  and 
ready  to  meet  the  bridegroom  (Matt,  xxv,  1-13).  Some  of 
his  later  parables,  also,  were  aimed  at  the  responsible  leaders 
of  the  nation,  who  were  recreant  to  their  high  trust :  like 
stewards  who  abused  the  servants  sent  to  receive  the  master's 
due  and  finally  killed  the  son  (Matt,  xxi,  33-41);  and  like 
invited  guests  who  would  not  attend  a  feast  and  whose  place 
was  accordingly  taken  by  an  assemblage  of  poor  and  crippled 
(Matt,  xxii,  1-14).  All  these  have  direct  reference  to  the 
idea  of  the  kingdom,  setting  forth  in  narrative  and  as  it 
were  hi  situ  the  active  working  of  its  spiritual  principles. 

Thus  Jesus'  parables,  simple  and  transparent  as  they  were, 
in  effect  were  his  most  revolutionary  utterances,  because  they 
aimed  at  reversing  men's  standards  of  values.  This,  how- 
ever, not  by  suppressing  their  natural  ambitions  in  life,  but 
by  clarifying  and  directing  these.  It  was  a  kind  of  teach- 
ing which  set  the  elements  of  life  in  sound  relation  and 
proportion,  so  that  men  from  the  humblest  up  could  feel 
what  things  were  of  supreme  importance  and  what  merely 
secondary  or  valueless. 

Ill 

His  Encounters  with  Human  Falsity.  The  general  tone 
of  Jesus'  intercourse  with  men,  it  would  seem,  was  gentle 
and  gracious,  patient  with  the  sincere-minded  however  dull 
or  feeble,  and  so  little  disposed  to  display  that  a  biographer 
found  in  him  the  fulfillment  of  Isaiah's  description  of 
Jehovah's   servant  : 

He  will  not  strive  nor  cry  aloud  ; 
.  Neither  will  any  one  hear  his  voice  in  the  streets. 

(Matt,  xii,  19;  cf.  Isa.  xlii,  2) 

His  mission,  as  he  said,  was  not  to  judge  and  censure  men, 
but  to  give  them  such  light  that  they  could  judge  themselves 

[554] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

(cf.  John  xii,  47,  with  ix,  39  ;  Luke  xii,  14).  Hence  his 
general  manner  of  teaching  :  not  seeking  to  convince  or  re- 
fute by  argument  but  to  make  the  truth  luminous  by  illustra- 
tion and  example,  so  that  men  could  see  for  themselves. 

One  response  he  sought,  however,  one  reciprocity  of  re- 
lation between  himself  and  his  hearers  ;  namely,  sincerity, 
openness,  and  candor  of  mind.  Any  kind  of  falsity  or  pre- 
tense or  guile  called  forth  from  him  an  answer  that  un- 
earthed its  ungenuineness  and  revealed  the  truth  as  it  were 
in  white  light. 

We  note  this  especially  in  two  ways. 

Almost  from    the   beginning   of  his  ministry  Jesus  was 

beset  by  men,  generally  of  the  leading  and  cultured  class, 

who  were  seeking  not  to  learn  the  truth  but  to 
I.  Taking  ,  .       .      ,  ?  ,  ,     ,         , 

the  Wise  in  ensnare  him  m  his  words,  and  thereby  get  a  pre- 
their  Own  j-g^t  on  legal  or  political  grounds  against  him. 
They  would  come  with  smooth  professions  of  re- 
spect and  sincerity ;  would  propound  questions  as  if  they 
had  real  doubts  about  them  ;  and  yet  with  sheer  duplicity 
and  hatred  in  their  hearts.  He  saw  the  pretense  and  falsity 
of  it  all,  yet  he  answered  them  according  to  what  they  pre- 
tended to  be.  They  were  posing  as  truth-seekers  ;  he  gave 
them  straight  truth.  This  he  did  by  lifting  their  ideas  out 
of  the  petty  and  sophisticated  slough  in  which  they  were 
mired  to  a  higher  and  more  reasonable,  which  is  to  say  a 
spiritual,  plane.  It  was  like  setting  the  light  of  intuitive 
truth  over  against  the  ingenuities  of  rabbinical  hair-splitting 
and  logic. 

Thus  it  came  about  that  by  his  answers  to  these  insincere 
questions,  answers  given  as  it  were  on  the  defensive,  he 
brought  out  some  of  the  profoundest  truths  of  his  teaching. 
Such,  for  instance,  was  his  reply  about  the  resurrection, 
wherein  he  removes  the  truth  at  one  stroke  from  the  fogs 
of  speculation  and  conjecture  to  the  clear  ground  of  the 

1  The  heading  taken  from  Job  v,  13 ;  words  of  Eliphaz. 
[555] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  PJlBLICAL  LITERATURE 

self-evident  (Matt,  xxii,  23-33).  His  reply  about  the  tribute 
money  (Matt,  xxii,  15-22)  not  only  silenced  their  duplicity 
but  put  every  man  into  his  reasonable  relation  both  to  God 
and  to  the  state.  Nor  did  he  stop  with  the  defensive, — with 
merely  answering  their  questions.  He  turned  the  tables  upon 
them,  asking  them  questions  in  turn.  Instances  are  his 
question  about  the  significance  of  John's  baptism  (Matt,  xxi, 
23-27)  and  his  question  about  their  conception  of  the  Christ 
(Matt,  xxii,  41-45)  —  things  which  they  could  not  answer  with- 
out betraying  their  insincerity  and  their  unspiritual  ideals. 
They  had  invented  dilemmas  in  which  they  tried  in  vain  to 
entrap  him  ;  he,  employing  their  own  method,  put  them  with 
ease  into  dilemma.s  from  which  they  could  not  escape  and 
remain  the  men  they  were.  Yet  his  answers  and  his  ques- 
tions alike  were  not  negative  but  eminently  constructive. 
Their  object  was  not  controversy  nor  even  self-defense,  but 
vital  truth.  The  result  of  these  encounters  it  is  important 
to  note.  In  Matthew  it  is  described,  "  And  no  one  was  able 
to  answer  him  a  word,  neither  durst  any  man  from  that 
day  forth  ask  him  any  more  questions  "  (Matt,  xxii,  46  ; 
cf.  Mark  xii,  34).  To  which  Mark  adds,  "  And  the  common 
people  heard  him  gladly  "  (Mark  xii,  37).  The  words  so 
baffling  to  the  insincere  and  sophisticated  were  clear  and 
edifying  to  simple  and  candid  minds. 

It  was  inevitable,  of  course,  that  Jesus  should  come  in 
contact  with  the  leaders  of  thought  and  opinion.  It  was  his 
mission,  indeed,  to  teach  not  the  common  people  only,  or 
any  one  class,  but  all  who  would  meet  him  as  man  to  man, 
including  the  teachers  and  cultured  ones  of  the  nation.  So 
all  the  leading  classes,  at  the  fitting  occasions,  had  their 
encounters  with  him  :  the  Scribes,  who  were  the  leaders  in 
learning ;  the  Pharisees,  who  were  the  orthodox  authorities 
in  religion  ;  and  the  Sadducees,  who  were  of  the  aristocratic 
and  governing  class,  worldly  and  skeptical.  Most  of  the 
opposition  to  him  came  from  these  classes  ;  the  secret  plots 

[556] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

against  him,  also,  were  instigated  by  them  ;  and  his  most 
sweeping  denunciations  were  directed  against  these  repre- 
sentatives of  learning  and  religion.  It  is  important  there- 
fore that  we  understand  on  what  grounds  there  should  have 
risen  this  mutual  antagonism. 

The  prevailing  mildness  and  graciousness  of  Jesus'  man- 
ner makes  the  effect  all  the  more  impressive  when  he  takes 
2.  Unearth-  occasion  to  employ  the  literary  weapon  of  invec- 
ing  Moral  tive.  It  gives  us  a  sense  of  the  tremendous 
Religious  reserve  power  which  he  could  wield  if  he  would, 
Shams  while  at  the  same  time  our  thought  is  concen- 

trated on  the  thing  that  could  so  move  him  from  his  wonted 
orbit  of  gentleness.  And  we  find  the  issue  a  very  plain  and 
simple  one.  It  is  the  antipathy  of  the  true  to  the  false,  of 
the  sincere  and  genuine  to  crookedness  and  sham. 

Jesus'  most  trenchant  denunciations  were  directed  against 
the  Scribes  and  Pharisees.  He  seems  to  have  taken  a  par- 
ticular occasion  to  utter  these  ;  it  was  in  Jerusalem  in  the 
last  week  of  his  ministry,  just  after  his  encounter  with  the 
leaders  of  the  people.  These  denunciations  are  most  fully 
reported  in  what  are  sometimes  called  the  Seven  Woes,  in 
Matthew  xxiii.  The  introduction  to  his  discourse,  however, 
shows  that  he  had  no  controversy  with  Scribes  and  Phar- 
isees as  such,  nor  with  what  they  taught  as  authoritative 
leaders  of  the  people.  They  sat,  as  he  said,  in  Moses'  seat, 
and  what  they  inculcated  it  was  right  to  heed  and  do  (Matt. 
xxiii,  2).  Of  the  typical  scribe,  or  man  of  letters,  and  what 
his  capacities  are  if  he  has  true  insight,  Jesus  spoke  in  ad- 
miring terms  (Matt,  xiii,  52).  He  ate  and  associated  freely 
with  Pharisees  who  were  sincere  and  candid  with  him  (Luke 
vii,  36  ;  xi,  37)  ;  and,  as  reported  in  the  gospel  of  John,  he 
imparted  one  of  his  profoundest  doctrines  to  Nicodemus,  an 
inquiring  Pharisee  and  member  of  the  Sanhedrim  (John  iii, 
1-15).  His  whole  issue  with  these  two  leading  classes  was 
on  the  ground  of  their  too  prevalent  sham  and  inconsistency ; 

[557] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

not  because  they  were  Scribes  and  Pharisees  but  because, 
or  in  so  far  as,  they  were  hypocrites.  The  Greek  word 
hnpokrites,  in  classical  usage,  means  an  actor,  a  stage- 
player.  This  meaning  fits  well  with  his  denunciation  of  the 
Pharisees.  As  accredited  and  responsible  teachers  it  was 
their  duty  to  live  as  they  taught.  Instead  of  that  they  were 
posing,  acting  a  false  part,  appearing  to  be  what  they  were 
not.  The  series  of  woes  pronounced  upon  them  showed 
up  the  various  ways  in  which  they  were  making  display  of 
sanctity  and  righteousness  while  inwardly  turning  their  pro- 
fessions to  their  own  selfish  purposes.  For  such  insincere 
practices  Jesus,  the  consistent  witness  to  truth,  could  not  but 
have  the  most  uncompromising  antipathy.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  acquired  the  popular  (or  invidious)  fame  of  being  a  friend 
of  publicans  and  sinners  (Matt,  xi,  19 ;  cf.  Luke  xix,  7), 
largely,  it  would  seem,  because  there  was  no  question  of 
insincerity  or  pretense  between  them. 

When  once  asked  who  was  greatest  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  he  praised  the  truth  and  purity  of  childhood  (Matt, 
xviii,  1-6)  ;  and  in  his  beatitudes  it  was  the  pure,  that  is, 
the  single  of  heart,  who  should  see  God  (Matt,  v,  8).  The 
faith  he  sought  was  simply  openness  of  heart  and  will  to 
the  truth  of  life  as  embodied  in  his  words  and  personality. 
But  with  any  form  of  crookedness  or  duplicity  he  had  no 
patience  or  toleration. 

IV 

His  Utterances  in  Divine  Character.  As  we  have  seen,^ 
for  common  hearers  and  ordinary  occasions  Jesus  did  not 
assert  his  personality  as  divine.  He  used  the  term  "  Son  of 
Man "  to  designate  himself,  and  even  this  for  the  most 
part  indirectly,  speaking  of  it  in  the  third  person  as  if  of 
an  ideal  to  be  enjulated  and  realized.  At  the  same  time 
he   did    not   assume    not   to  be   divine   or   in  any  way  to 

1  See  above,  pp.  535,  541  ff- 
[558] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

disguise  the  more  than  human  personaHty  that  was  his.  He 
simply  spoke  in  character.  The  divine  beauty  and  power 
of  his  personaHty  manifest  themselves  in  the  native  dignity 
and  greatness  of  his  words.  When  he  pronounced  the  for- 
giveness of  sinsi,  men  recognized  instinctively  that  he  was 
exercising  a  divine  prerogative,  though  he  ascribed  the  au- 
thority to  do  so  to  the  Son  of  Man  (Mark  ii,  7,  10).  When 
he  spoke  habitually  of  his  relations  with  his  Father,  the  Jews 
were  incensed  against  him  because  in  their  idea  such  inti- 
macy as  he  professed  to  have  with  God  could  only  be  between 
equals  (John  v,  18).  His  whole  teaching  and  intercourse  are 
pitched,  so  to  speak,  in  this  divine  key.  One  of  the  most 
striking  examples  of  this  may  be  felt  in  the  passage  wherein 
he  bids  men  come  to  him  for  comfort  and  rest  and  take  his 
yoke  upon  them  (Matt,  xi,  25-30).  Another  example  occurs 
in  his  lament  over  Jerusalem  in  Matthew  xxiii,  37.  How 
truly  divine  is  the  whole  presupposition  of  these  utterances 
we  can  realize  when  we  reflect  how  inappropriate,  not  to  say 
impossible,  they  would  be  in  any  other  man's  mouth.  Yet  in 
him  they  sound  perfectly  congruous  and  fitting ;  his  person- 
ality so  fully  bears  them  out.  What  would  be  insane  assump- 
tion in  an  ordinary  man  is  in  him  felt  to  be  native  and  normal. 

Note.  On  this  characteristic  of  Jesus'  teaching  and  personality 
William  E.  Channing  says  :  "  We  feel  that  a  new  being,  of  a  new  order 
of  mind,  is  taking  a  part  in  human  affairs.  There  is  a  native  tone  of 
grandeur  and  authority  in  his  teaching.  ...  He  speaks  in  a  natural, 
spontaneous  style  of  accomplishing  the  most  arduous  and  important 
change  in  human  affairs.  This  unlabored  manner  of  expressing  great 
thoughts  is  particularly  worthy  of  attention.  You  never  hear  from  Jesus 
that  swelling,  pompous,  ostentatious  language  which  almost  necessarily 
springs  from  an  attempt  to  sustain  a  character  above  our  powers.  He 
talks  of  his  glories  as  one  to  whom  they  were  familiar,  and  of  his  inti- 
macy and  oneness  with  God,  as  simply  as  a  child  speaks  of  his  connec- 
tion with  his  parents.  He  speaks  of  saving  and  judging  the  world,  of 
drawing  all  men  to  himself,  and  of  giving  everlasting  life,  as  we  speak 
of  the  ordinary  powers  which  we  exert.  He  makes  no  set  harangues, 
about  the  grandeur  of  his  office  and  character.    His  consciousness  of  it 

[559] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

gives  a  hue  to  his  whole  language,  breaks  out  in  indirect,  undesigned 
expressions,  showing  that  it  was  the  deepest  and  most  familiar  of  his 
convictions."  ' 

The  examples  given  above  (and  others  might  be  named) 
are  taken  from  one  of  the  synoptic  gospels  ;  and  in  gen- 
With  whom  cral  the  assumptions  of  divinity  in  those  gos- 
Most  Overt  pgjg  ^j-g  indirect,  not  plainly  assertive.  This  is 
quite  consistent  with  Jesus'  ordinary  purpose  to  leave  his 
divinity  of  nature  to  men's  recognition  and  personal  dis- 
covery. It  is  in  the  fourth  gospel,  however,  that  most  of 
his  utterances  in  divine  character  are  to  be  found  and  that 
these  are  most  overt.  Many  of  them  are  so  directly  self- 
assertive  that  they  give  his  words,  as  therein  reported,  an 
essentially  different  style  from  that  of  the  other  gospels. 
This  has  roused  much  question  whether  in  this  gospel  we 
have  an  authentic  report  of  his  actual  words  or  an  inven- 
tion, the  result  of  later  reflection  and  meditation.  And 
doubtless  a  very  individual  style,  the  style  of  a  peculiarly 
endowed  writer,  has  been  imparted  to  them.  But  to  deny 
them,  or  some  authentic  nucleus  of  them,  to  Jesus  is  to  go 
beyond  the  warrant.  Jesus,  as  we  know,  was  aware  of  his 
divine  distinction  ;  so,  indeed,  were  the  evil  spirits  (cf.  Mark  i, 
24).  For  the  proper  human  audience  and  occasion  it  is  alto- 
gether probable  that  he  would  give  open  expression  to  the 
holy  working-consciousness  which  so  naturally  shaped  his 
thoughts  and  actuated  his  deeds  of  power. 

To  two  classes  of  people  Jesus'  revelation  of  the  divinity 
of  his  person  was  explicit,  in  terms  of  the  Messiah  or  of 
the  Son  of  God. 

I.  One  class  was  of  those  who  were  susceptible  to  such 
a  spiritual  recognition  of  him,  and  who  could  receive  his 
claims  with  sympathy,  loyalty,  humility.  Among  such,  out- 
side the  circle  of  the  disciples,  were  the  woman  of  Samaria, 
to  whom  he  explicitly  announced   himself  as  the  Messiah 

^  Channing,  Works  (one-volume  ed.),  p.  305. 
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THE  SON  OF  MAN 

(John  iv,  26) ;  and  the  man  born  bhnd,  to  whom  he  revealed 
himself  as  the  Son  ot  God  (John  ix,  35-37).  These,  how- 
To  the  Goen-  ^^^^>  were  casual  instances,  though  we  may  be  sure 
Minded  and  not  SO  accidental  as  they  would  seem.  Among 
"""  ^  the   more    intimate    disciples   also    it   is    natural 

to  suppose  that  some  had  more  penetrative  and  intuitive 
minds  to  realize  his  divine  nature  than  others ;  and  of  these 
"the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved,"  to  whom  is  attributed 
the  authorship  of  the  fourth  gospel  (John  xxi,  24),  was  pre- 
eminent. The  words  of  deeper  and  more  mystic  import,  in 
which  Jesus  speaks  openly  in  the  divine  character,  would 
find  a  special  lodgment  in  his  mind,  and  after  due  ripening 
of  meditation  would  be  brought  forth  from  memory  and 
reproduced.  This  is  what  appears  from  the  discourses  of 
Jesus  reported  in  the  gospel  of  John. 

2.  The  other  class  was  of  those  who,  while  by  no  means 
unsusceptible,  were  antagonistic  to  any  claim  to  divinity  on 

his  part,  or  on  the  part  of  any  man.    Such  were 
To  the  r     ,       T       ■  ,    ,      1  , 

Self-Blinded    most  01  the  J  cwisli  leaders  ;  whom  the  writer  of 

Leaders  of      j-^g  fourth  gospel  represents  as  bitterly  unwilling 

to  respond  to  the  divine  when  they  saw  it  (John  v, 

i8  ;  X,  33-38  ;  xix,  7).    To  such,  as  responsible  teachers  of 

the  people,  Jesus  would  have  a  motive,  if  only  to  bear  true 

witness,  for  declaring  in  clear  and  emphatic  terms  the  deep 

significance  of  his  personality.    It  was  something  essential 

for  them   to  know,   whether  they  would   receive  it  or  not 

(cf.  Ezek.  iii,   11). 

This  is  how  the  gospel  of  John  represents  him   in  his 

discourses   given   in  Jerusalem  ;    for   it   is   especially  these 

which  this  gospel,  differing  thus  from  the  others,  reports 

(see  John  v;  vii-x;  xii,  12-50).    Here  at  the  capital  he  came 

into   collision  with    the   leaders  of   opinion   and   sentiment, 

whose  duty  it  was  to  know  and   propagate  the  truth.     He 

meets  them  as  they  are  ready  to  stone  him  for  what  they 

deem  blasphemy  (John  x,  30,  31)  and,  as  it  were,  hurls  at 

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them  in  most  positive  terms  his  divine  relations  and  nature. 
If  this  is  different  from  his  manner  in  the  synoptic  gospels, 
we  must  note  also  the  difference  of  audience,  occasion,  and 
motive.  He  did  not  choose,  amid  such  self -blinded  opponents, 
to  leave  his  divine  personality  uncertain  or  ambiguous.  That 
belonged  to  his  witness  to  the  truth  ;  the  rest  lay  with  them. 

V 

His  Acts  in  Divine  Character.  The  scientific  temper  of 
our  age,  with  its  disposition  to  reduce  all  things  to  the  plane 
of  ascertainable  natural  law,  has  made  the  question  of  the 
miracles  of  Jesus  a  very  vexed  and  burning  one.  There  is 
a  widespread  tendency,  which  even  loyal  Christians  cannot 
well  suppress,  to  adopt  some  explanation  of  them  which  will 
bring  them  to  our  natural  unit  of  measure.  This  tendency 
takes  mainly  two  forms  :  either  to  think  that  the  miraculous 
element  of  Jesus'  ministry  came  into  the  record  as  the  result 
of  childish  wonder  and  credulity,  which  by  the  time  the  gos- 
pels were  written  had  developed  into  an  accepted  tradition, 
or  to  limit  his  mighty  works  to  such  cases  of  suggestion  and 
faith-healing  as  can  be  paralleled  in  modern  times  and  to 
leave  the  rest  to  superstitious  exaggeration. 

Neither  explanation  does  justice  to  the  account.  As  to 
authenticity,  the  miracles  are  as  well  attested  as  any  part  of 
Jesus'  ministry  ;  are  narrated  in  just  as  temperate  and  matter- 
of-fact  style  as  the  rest ;  and  are  so  intimately  interwoven 
with  his  teaching  and  ordinary  acts  that  the  two  elements, 
natural  and  supernatural,  must  stand  or  fall  together.  If  the 
record  of  the  miracles  must  go,  there  is  no  valid  reason  for 
calling  anything  historic.  A  like  thing  may  be  said  about 
attempts  to  limit  their  kind  or  range.  They  cannot  be  con- 
fined to  cases  in  which  u<c  can  trace  the  working  of  natural 
law,  without  losing  their  spiritual  value.  A  larger  and  tran- 
scendent element  escapes  and  baffles  us ;  a  divine  dignity 
and  depth  which  will  not  consent  to  be  so  limited. 

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THE  SON  OF  MAN 

We  are  not  concerned  here  to  call  in  question  either  the 
record  or  the  reality  of  the  miracles  of  Jesus.  We  take  the 
As  a  Means  ^ecord  as  it  Stands.  Our  approach  to  it  is  literary  ; 
of  Self-  and  our  consideration  of  the  miracles  deals  with 

xpression  |-j^g^j-  essentially  literary  value.  What  do  the 
miracles  saj,  beyond  what  could  be  said  otherwise  ? 

In  other  words,  we  have  to  consider  the  miracles  of  Jesus 
as  a  means  of  self-expression.  Given  the  character  that  he 
rrfanifests  himself  to  be,  undeniably  a  character  of  majestic 
type ;  given  the  plane  of  being  on  which  he  moves,  undeni- 
ably higher  than  that  of  ordinary  affairs  ;  are  the  miracles 
consistent  and  harmonious  with  these  elements  .■*  They  are, 
so  to  say,  his  means  of  personation,  by  which  acts  speak 
instead  of  words.  Do  they  represent  the  person  as  he  is  .-* 
Has  their  supernatural  character  the  verisimilitude  which 
makes  for  self-evidencing  value  ?  It  is  a  question  not  of  lit- 
erary transmission  or  historicity  but  of  literary  consisteiKy 
and  truth  to  nature.  And  to  answer  it  we  must  deal  fairly 
with  the  personality  of  the  Being  who  works  them.  If  he 
is  divine  as  well  as  human  his  manner  of  self-expression, 
act  as  well  as  word,  will  correspond. 

Considering  the  miracles  in  this  light  we  may  summarize 
the  matter  in  two  remarks. 

I.  The  miracles  of  Jesus,  while  far  transcending  the 
ordinary  range  of  human  experience,  contain  nothing  of  the 
magical  or  monstrous,  and  they  are  never  without  a  justify- 
ing and  illuminating  motive.  They  are  in  idea  the  polar 
opposite  to  the  works  of  occult  art  or  vulgar  marvel  which 
with  raw  and  materialistic  minds  pass  for  miracle.  And 
they  always  contain  an  idea  worthy  of  their  power.  They 
are  works  of  beneficence  and  mercy  and  sympathy ;  never 
wrought  for  display  or  self-glorification  ;  always  embodying 
the  double  truth,  of  divine  love  and  good-will  on  the  one 
side,  of  the  possibilities  that  inhere  in  human  faith  on  the 
other.    They  tell  a  truth   \Vhich  men   need  to  know,  and 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

which  could  not  be  told  so  well  in  any  other  way.  In  this 
respect  they  are,  like  Jesus'  words,  a  kind  of  literary  vehicle, 
an  acted  symbol,  bringing  the  touch  of  his  personality  more 
intimately  into  the  lives  of  men.  They  are,  as  it  were, 
his  life  put  into  expression  beyond  the  reach  of  w'ords, 
a  deeper  utterance  of  grace  where  sermon  and  parable  fail. 
We  can  imagine  to  some  extent  what  service  they  have  done 
mankind  by  thinking  how  much  poorer  the  world  would  be 
without  the  greatest  and  summarizing  miracle  of  all,  his 
resurrection  from  the  dead.  In  that  the  meaning  of  his 
ministry  culminated. 

Note.  The  contrast  of  Jesus'  miracles  as  recorded  in  the  gospels 
with  the  unmotived  marvels  of  fnen's  invention  may  be  strikingly  seen 
in  the  miracles  of  the  Infancy  of  Christ  which  we  find  related  in  the  so- 
called  Apocryphal  Gospels  :  see,  for  example,  the  Gospel  of  Thomas  and 
the  Gospel  of  Pseudo-Matthew.  Of  these  an  editor  writes  (Introd.,  p.  xi) : 
"  The  single  effect  of  placing  [these  writings]  alongside  the  narratives 
of  the  genuine  Gospels  must  be,  as  Dr.  Westcott  has  said,  to  im- 
press the  reader  with  the  sense  of  '  complete  contrast.'  Time,  place, 
propriety,  even  ordinary  consistency,  are  recklessly  disregarded."  ^ 

2.  The  miracles  of  Jesus,  wrought  without  effort  and 
with  no  trace  of  that  uncertainty  which  attaches  to  a  hazard- 
ous or  doubtful  experiment  (cf.  by  contrast  Mark  ix,  17,  18), 
are  evidently  as  natural  to  him  as  are  ordinary  acts  to  us. 
We  have  seen  that  while  he  did  not  assume  to  be  more  than 
man,  neither  did  he  assume  not  to  be.  He  simply  spoke  and 
lived  in  character ;  and  these  miracles  are  the  spontaneous 
acts  of  the  divine,  or  rather  the  divine-human  character.  He 
does  not  dissociate  them  from  the  acts  and  powers  of  highest 
manhood.  They  are  wrought,  indeed,  as  showing  the  life- 
giving  potencies  of  the  Son  of  Man,  true  man,  especially  in 
the  attitude  of  perfect  faith.  His  own  faith  in  the  Father 
was  so  absolute  that  it  had  the  effect  of  unquestioning  certi- 
tude.   Still,  it  was  authentic  faith,  and  he  lived  by  faith  just 

1  "New  Teslament  Apocryphnl  ^^''riting.s  "  (ed.  Orr),  pp.  21, .32. 

[5^4] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

as  he  would  teach  other  men  to  Hve ;  and  this  faith  created 
a  fullness  of  personal  force  by  virtue  of  which  such  works 
of  mercy  and  love,  great  as  the  occasion  demanded,  were 
a  natural  way  of  living. 

Tennyson  describes  the  self-expression  of  Jesus  as : 

In  loveliness  of  perfect  deeds, 

More  strong  than  all  poetic  thought.^ 

These  perfect  deeds  he  had  no  thought  of  monopolizing ; 
they  were,  in  his  teaching,  just  such  deeds  as  perfect  man 
could  do,  with  his  nature  fully  at  one  with  the  divine.  And 
the  spirit  of  such  deeds,  which  is  really  all  their  value,  was 
thenceforth  to  be  with  believers  a  dynamic  to  even  greater 
works  than  he  had  shown  to  men  (see  John  xiv,  12). 

Note.  A  tentative  classification  of  his  miracles,  and  the  spiritual 
forces  brought  to  expression  therein,  may  here  be  gi\'en.  They  may  be 
regarded  under  three  heads  : 

1.  Miracles  wherein  his  personality  acted  directly,  by  antipathy,  on 
unseen  spiritual  forces  (casting  out  demons). 

2.  Miracles  wherein  his  personality  acted  sympathetically  on  human 
disease  and  doom  (healing  and  raising  the  dead). 

3.  Miracles  wherein  his  personality  acted  as  a  masterful  divine  and 
creative  power  (Nature  miracles). 

None  of  these  are  less  consistent  with  the  presumable  power  of  the 
Word  made  flesh  than  any  other.  They  become  more  intelligible  just 
in  the  proportion  that  Jesus  himself  does. 

III.  Bearing  Witness  to  the  Truth 

We  have  noted  ^  how  reticent  Jesus  was  about  his  claim  to 
being  Messiah  and  Son  of  God.  He  called  himself  rather 
Son  of  Man,  teaching  his  followers  in  a  quasi-theoretical 
way  what  such  a  Personage  should  be  and  do  and  holding 
the  Messiah  idea  as  it  were  in  abeyance  until  they  could  get 
a  just  conception  of  it  for  themselves.    We  have  seen  ^  also 

1  See  above,  p.  527,  note.  ^  See  above,  pp.  535,  541. 

3  See  above,  pp.  551  ff. 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

how  he  dealt  with  the  idea  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven ; 
describing  it  in  parables  and  figurative  terms  in  order  to 
wean  men  from  their  gross  and  external  conceptions  of  it  and 
make  them  accept  it  as  a  renovated  inner  life.  All  this  mani- 
fests the  supreme  literary  wisdom  with  which  he  met  his 
generation's  hopes  and  opinions  and  turned  these  in  the  way 
of  sanity  and  tempered  reason. 

In  this  self-disclosure  and  teaching  he  had  spent  about 
three  years  of  his  ministry ;  until,  as  he  knew,  his  time 
had  nearly  come.  He  had  weathered  the  shallow  popularity 
which  his  teaching  and  miracles  first  roused,  and  now  the 
multitudes  were  in  doubt  about  him  (cf.  Matt,  xvi,  13,  14). 
He  had  trained  a  company  of  sincere  disciples  to  familiarity 
with  his  principles  of  life  :  principles  which,  though  now 
imperfectly  comprehended,  they  would  some  day  recall  and 
understand.  And  now,  as  the  end  approached,  all  the 
simpler  and  humanitarian  side  of  his  Messiahship  was  in 
plain  terms  before  the  eyes  of  men.  From  the  beginning 
of  his  ministry  he  had  moved  among  the  common  people, 
accessible  to  all,  living  the  sound,  pure,  just,  and  helpful  life 
which  fills  out  the  idea  and  type  of  manhood. 

Signs  of  a  tragic  outcome,  however,  were  thickening. 
The  bigoted  and  fanatical  among  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees 
had  dogged  him  from  place  to  place,  seeking  to  convict  him 
of  blasphemy  and  heresy.  His  life  was  plotted  against  in 
Judea  (John  vii,  i).  For  months  he  had  been  a  virtual  exile 
from  Galilee,  the  domain  of  Herod  Antipas,  because  Phari- 
sees and  Herodians  were  conspiring  against  him  there  ^ 
(Mark  iii,  6;  cf.  viii,  15).  We  find  him  and  his  disciples 
at  length  in  the  dominions  of  Herod  Philip  at  Cassarea 
Philippi,  in  the  extreme  north  of  Palestine,  whither  he  seems 
to  have  gone  for  seclusion.  It  was  there  that  lie  predicted 
his  death,  and  from  there  that  he  began  his  final  progress 
through  the  land  to  Jerusalem. 

^  See  Burkitt,  "  The  Gospel  History  and  its  Transmission,"  pp.  95-97. 
[566] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

The  history  that  follows  may  be  regarded  as  the  transi- 
tion of  his  ministry  to  a  new  phase,  the  final  and  culmi- 
nating one,  wherein  its  deeper  and  ultimate  meanings  come 

to  light, 

I 

The  Great  Confession  and  its  Sequel.  It  was  while  he  was 
far  from  his  home  province,  in  the  only  region  where  his 
life  was  safe,  that  Jesus  received  the  first  adequate  recogni- 
tion of  his  personality.  Students  of  his  career  call  this  the 
Great  Confession.  Peter,  the  spokesman  of  the  disciples, 
made  it,  in  the  answer  he  gave  to  Jesus'  question,  "  But 
who  say  ye  that  I  am .?  "  (Matt,  xvi,  15,  16  ;  Mark  viii,  29 ; 
Luke  ix,  20).  Others  had  made  a  variety  of  guesses  who 
he  was,  all  more  or  less  idle  because  not  made  with  insight ; 
but  the  question  had  ceased  to  be  acute,  and  curious  and 
self-interested  crowds  had  fallen  away.  The  twelve  disciples 
had  remained ;  partly,  it  would  seem,  from  simple  loyalty, 
and  partly  because  his  teachings  had  become  a  spiritual 
necessity  to  their  otherwise  poorly  furnished  minds  (cf.  John 
vi,  66-69).  But  their  intercourse  with  him  had  been  an  in- 
valuable education,  sounder  and  deeper  than  they  were  aware. 

And  now,  in  a  strange  country,  they  were  alone  with  him, 
having  his  company  all  to  themselves. 

Peter's  answer  to  Jesus'  question  gives  voice  to  the  human 
recognition  which  Jesus  had  all  along  sought  to  awaken. 
"  Thou  art  the  Christ  [the  Messiah],  the  Son  of  the  living 
God."  This  spontaneous  confession  marks  the  success  of 
Jesus'  aim  thus  far.  So  momentous  does  it  signify  to  him 
that  he  attributes  the  ability  to  make  it  to  a  divinely  given 
insight  (Matt,  xvi,  17).  It  is  indeed  a  great  height  sur- 
mounted in  Jesus'  self-disclosure  when  those  who  have  been 
most  intimate  with  him,  seeing  his  humility  as  well  as  his 
greatness,  have  risen  to  the  sense,  however  dim,  that  the 
prophetic  ideal  of  the  ages  is  truly  embodied  in  him.  And 
this  comes  from  the  recognition  of  his  intrinsic  personality, 

[567] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

with  no  external  glory  or  royalty  to  support  his  claims  ;  for, 
so  far  from  having  the  estate  of  a  king,  he  is  a  hunted  man, 
virtually  in  exile.  To  recognize  him  in  this  condition  is  to 
recognize  him  as  he  is. 

Though  in  this  confession  the  disciples  had  reached  the 
point  where  they  could  heartily  accept  Jesus  as  King  of  men 
How  to  Live  and  Son  of  God,  their  ideas  of  what  is  involved 
Up  to  it  ij^  such  royalty  and  sonship  were  vague  and  un- 
developed. As  yet  they  had  seen,  for  the  most  part,  merely 
his  human  side,  the  side  which  by  earthly  standards  they 
could  comprehend.  But  there  was  a  depth  and  reach  of 
personality  yet  unrevealed,  a  stage  of  the  ministry  that  had 
waited,  so  to  say,  for  this  access  of  recognition  on  the  part 
of  men.  As  Jesus  himself  expressed  it,  he  had  yet  a  baptism 
to  be  baptized  with  (Luke  xii,  50)  before  he  could  inaugu- 
rate that  world  order  wherein  his  followers  would,  as  John 
had  predicted,  be  baptized  with  the  Holy  Spirit  and  with 
fire  (cf.  Matt,  iii,  11). 

This  discovered  fact  of  his  Messiahship,  however,  is  not 
at  this  stage  a  thing  to  be  proclaimed  (Luke  ix,  21),  but  to 
be  thought  out  and  understood.  Accordingly,  taking  the 
disciples  as  it  were  into  counsel  with  him  on  the  question 
what  this  Christ,  or,  as  he  still  says,  the  Son  of  Man,  must 
be  and  do,  he  affirms  with  great  solemnit)'  that  for  him 
Messiahship  means  rejection  and  death,  followed  by  resurrec- 
tion. Such  a  doom  for  a  true  human  life  had  already  been 
foreseen  by  philosophers  who  had  no  idea  of  the  uprise  be- 
yond it.  "The  wisdom  of  Plato  had  already  seen  that  one 
perfectly  just  could  not  appear  amongst  the  senseless  and 
the  wicked  without  provoking  a  murderous  hatred."  For 
him  the  hatred  was  to  come  from  the  accredited  leaders  of 
the  nation  ;  this  was  its  anomalv.  But  Jesus'  prediction  was 
blind  and  repulsive  teaching  to  the  disciples,  and  was  vehe- 
mently rebuked  by  Peter.  His  remonstrance  with  Jesus  for 
presuming  to  predict  such  a  fate,  a  remonstrance  as  vigorous 

[568] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

as  his  confession  had  been,  was  countered  by  a  reproof  on 
Jesus'  part  as  emphatic  as  had  been  his  previous  commen- 
dation (Matt,  xvi,  22,  23). 

Following  his  solemn  announcement  of  his  coming  suffer- 
ing and  death,  Jesus  as  solemnly  enunciates  the  principle 
TheDis-  ^^^^  ^^^  every  disciple  of  his  (in  which  number  he 
cipies'  Part  includes  not  the  twelve  only  but  all  who  ever  be- 
lieve in  him,  Mark  viii,  34)  the  following  of  his 
way  means  self-denial  and  cross-bearing.  "If  any  one,"  he 
says,  "  would  come  after  me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and  take 
up  his  cross  daily,  and  follow  me  "  (Luke  ix,  23).  On  a 
later  occasion,  as  great  multitudes  followed  him,  he  spoke 
still  more  emphatically,  "  Whosoever  doth  not  bear  his  own 
cross  and  come  after  me,  cannot  be  my  disciple," — accom- 
panying the  statement  by  the  "hard  saying"  about  hating 
all  one's  relatives  for  his  sake  (Luke  xiv,  25-27).  To  the 
earlier  statement  he  adds  the  enigmatical  saying,  "  For  who- 
soever would  save  his  life  will  lose  it ;  but  whosoever  shall 
lose  his  life  for  my  sake,  the  same  will  save  it  "  (Luke  ix, 
24).  Among  the  paradoxes  and  startling  half-truths  with 
which  his  teaching  abounds,^  this  was  the  most  spiritually 
penetrative  and  the  hardest  to  make  men  understand.  We 
may  call  it  the  distinctive  Christian  principle,  which  is  des- 
tined in  the  end  to  prevail.  What  he  meant  has  become 
a  commonplace  of  the  Christian  consciousness  and  spirit. 
However  imperfectly  men  carry  it  out,  or  however  the  world 
scorns  the  practical  application  of  it,  no  theme  of  literature 
and  life  is  so  honored  to-day  as  self-sacrifice  and  the  hero- 
ism of  service.  But  such  an  ideal,  though  it  touched  the 
very  heart  of  his  reign,  needed  time  and  a  new  spirit  of 
life  fpr  realization  ;  and  Jesus  reassuringly  added  that  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  would  come  with  power ;  that  there 
were  men  standing  there  who  would  see  it  before  they  died 
(Matt,  xvi,  28  ;  Mark  ix,  i  ;  Luke  ix,  27). 

1  See  above,  p.  546  f. 
[569] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

At  this  point  in  his  ministry  we  note  a  change  in  the 
substance  and  tone  of  his  teaching.  He  left  the  region  of 
starting  to  Caesarea  PhiHppi  a  few  days  (or  perhaps  weeks)  ^ 
Carry  it  Out  ^fter  the  Great  Confession ;  and  in  the  course 
of  a  somewhat  leisurely  and  unobtrusive  journey  through 
Palestine  from  north  to  south  (cf.  for  Galilee,  Mark  ix,  30), 
a  sort  of  farewell  journey  with  Jerusalem  as  his  objective, 
he  took  occasion  to  impress  on  his  disciples  that  this,  his 
last  journey,  meant  going  to  death  and  resurrection  (Luke  ix, 
51 ;  ix,  44  ;  Mark  ix,  30-32  ;  x,  32-34).  It  was  their  hardest 
lesson  ;  and  for  the  time  they  were  almost  deaf  to  it,  though 
the  majesty  of  his  mien,  as  thus  he  strode  so  resolutely 
toward  his  doom,  amazed  them.  To  the  idea  of  the  coming 
kingdom,  however,  they  were  quite  keenly  awake,  and  there 
was  rivalry  among  them  as  to  who  should  be  greatest 
therein.  James  and  John,  indeed,  who  are  thought  to  have 
been  cousins  of  Jesus,  preferred  a  definite  request  for  high 
official  appointment  (Mark  x,  35-37)  ;  but  his  response  to 
their  request,  "  Can  ye  drink  of  the  cup  which  I  drink  ?  or 
be  baptized  with  the  baptism  with  which  I  am  baptized  ?  " 
(Mark  x,  38),  elicits  their  mistaken  conception  and  em- 
phasizes anew  the  austere  and  soul-trying  ordeal  that  awaits 
them.  He  is  minded  to  foster  no  false  hopes.  Nor  does  he 
command  them  to  follow  him.  He  gives  them  the  oppor- 
tunity rather,  holding  before  them  the  risks  and  the  sacri- 
fices; his  appeal  is  always  to  men's  choice  and  free  will.  It 
is  with  a  kind  of  yearning  wistfulness  that  he  asks  if  they 
can  share  his  cup  and  his  baptism  with  him,  submitting 
themselves  thereby  to  lives  of  service  (Mark  x,  42-45). 
But  from  this  time  onward  the  severity  and  solemnity  of 
the  situation  deepens,  for  he  is  preparing  them  for  the  deep 
things  of  the  manhood  life. 

1  We  have  to  reckon  for  the  Transfiguration  (sec  next  section),  which 
occurred  six  or  eight  days  after  (Luke  ix,  28 ;  Mark  ix,  2)  ;  succeeding  that, 
however,  the  start  southward  is  indefinite. 

[570] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 


II 


Reckoning  on  Departure.  The  last  six  months  of  Jesus' 
ministry  was  a  dehberate  planning  and  preparation  for  the 
end.  To  designate  this  ending  St.  Luke,  in  his  account 
of  the  Transfiguration,  uses  a  peculiar  word  :  he  calls  it 
decease  or  departure  (Greek  ten  exodon,  "the  exodus,  the 
going  out,"  Luke  ix,  31)  ;  an  idea  which  included  not  only 
death  but  rising  again  and,  to  crown  all,  ascension  —  entrance 
upon  a  higher  stage  and  table-land  of  being,  from  which 
divine  position  his  ministry  could  be  continued  on  a  world 
scale  and  be  victorious.  That  this  was  the  idea  in  Jesus' 
mind  is  evident  from  what  he  said  about  being  lifted  up, 
both  at  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  his  ministry.  To  a 
Pharisee,  during  his  first  visit  to  Jerusalem,  he  said  the  Son 
of  Man  must  be  lifted  up,  and  he  illustrated  it  by  reference 
to  Moses  and  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness  (John  iii,  14  ; 
cf.  Num.  xxi,  8,  9).  To  certain  Greeks  who  later  inquired 
after  him  in  Jerusalem,  his  remark,  "  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted 
up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  myself"  (John 
xii,  32),  meant  crucifixion,  but  it  meant  a  great  deal  more. 
It  meant  a  death  which  was  also  a  germination,  like  that  of 
a  grain  of  wheat  buried  in  the  ground  ;  this  is  the  image  he 
used  to  illustrate  it  (John  xii,  24).  All  this,  it  will  be  noted, 
he  took  upon  himself  not  as  assuming  the  divine  but  as 
Son  of  Man,  working  out  the  true  glory  of  manhood. 

A  week  after  Peter  had  made  his  confession  and  Jesus 
had  told  the  disciples  what  it  involved  and  presaged,  occurred 
The  Great  ^^^  ^^  ^^  most  mysterious  events  of  his  ministry. 
Refusal  and  As  with  Peter,  James,  and  John,  his  three  most 
intimate  companions,  he  was  in  prayer  on  a  high 
mountain,  —  probably  Mount  Hermon,  near  Caesarea  Philippi, 
—  suddenly,  with  a  super-earthly  light  apparently  from  with- 
in his  person,  his  face  and  figure  so  shone  that  his  very 
garments  were  dazzling  white.   Two  men,  also  glorified,  who 

[571] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

were  identified  as  Moses  and  Elijah,  appeared  and  talked 
with  him.  This  strange  episode  is  narrated  by  all  three  of 
the  synoptists  (Matt,  xvii,  i-8  ;  Mark  ix,  2-8  ;  Luke  ix,  28- 
36)  ;  and  its  essentials  are  recalled  in  a  later  epistle  attrib- 
uted to  one  of  the  spectators  (2  Peter  i,  16-18).  St.  Luke 
alone  reports  the  subject  of  their  conversation.  They  spoke, 
he  says,  of  his  decease,  his  exodus,  which  he  was  about  to 
accomplish  at  Jerusalem. 

These  two  men,  it  will  be  remembered,  were  the  greatest 
personages  of  Old  Testament  history :  the  men  in  whom, 
respectively,  the  essential  spirit  of  law  and  of  prophecy  were 
embodied.  From  Moses  had  been  preserved  a  prediction 
of  a  prophet  to  come  after  him  like  himself,  to  whom  men 
should  hearken  (Deut.  xviii,  15  ;  cf.  Acts  iii,  22;  vii,  37); 
and  Elijah,  as  the  evangelists  recall,  was  to  be  the  herald 
of  the  Christ  (Mai.  iv,  5  ;  cf.  Matt,  xi,  14  ;  Mark  ix,  1 1-13  ; 
Luke  i,  17).  And  now  these  three,  so  intimately  associated 
in  prophecy  and  fulfillment,  were  together,  discussing  a  new 
theme.  Further,  the  other-world  personages  were  two  of  the 
three  men  (the  other  was  the  patriarch  Enoch,  Gen.  v,  24) 
who  are  represented  to  have  been  spared  the  universal  fate 
of  death,  or,  in  the  case  of  Moses,  to  have  had  an  excep- 
tional departure  from  earth  (Deut.  xxxiv,  5,  6 ;  2  Kings  ii, 
i-ii), — a  distinction  seemingly  due  to  their  exceptional 
identification  with  God's  work  and  will.  If  their  release  from 
mortality  was  a  reward  of  such  merit,  then  Jesus,  whose 
meat,  as  he  said,  was  to  do  the  Father's  will  (cf.  John  iv,  34), 
would  certainly  seem  to  have  earned  it,  nay,  to  be  even  more 
truly  than  they  worthy  of  exemption  from  death.  And  that 
he  was  all  ready  for  such  translation,  the  other-world  splen- 
dor of  his  form  and  his  intimacy  with  the  great  immortals 
seem  to  indicate.  Translation  to  heaven,  the  ascension  by 
which  at  the  end  he  actually  did  depart  (Acts  i,  9-1 1),  was 
his  if  he  would  take  it ;  he  could  be  spared  the  preliminary 
shame  and  suffering  and  deatli  and  resurrection. 

[57-' J 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

Here  then  occurs  what  we  have  called  the  great  refusal 
and  resolve.  He  chose  to  renounce  this  exceptional  result 
of  a  sinless  life  ;  chose  to  submit  to  the  universal  human 
lot,  the  doom  which  from  earliest  times  had  been  deemed 
the  wages  and  penalty  of  sin  (cf.  Gen.  ii,  17  ;  Rom.  vi,  16, 
23).  His  motive  in  this  his  whole  consistent  career  had  re- 
vealed. As  Son  of  Man  he  was  resolved  to  submit  to  all 
to  which  man  is  subject,  claiming  no. favors  or  exemption, 
A  death  so  chosen,  when  he  might  have  been  spared  it,  was 
truly  unique.  It  was  doubtless  a  new  thing  to  Moses  and 
Elijah  themselves  ;  and  one  of  the  spectators  of  this  trans- 
figuration describes  the  sacrifice  as  something  that  prophets 
had  speculated  on  and  that  angels  had  desired  to  look  into 
(i  Pet.  i,  10-12). 

With  this  refusal  and  resolve  made,  the  splendor  faded. 
A  cloud  enveloped  the  company,  and  from  it  there  came 
a  voice,  saying,  "This  is  my  Son,  my  Chosen;  hear  ye 
him"  (Luke  ix,  35).  As  the  voice  ceased  the  disciples  saw 
only  Jesus  alone.  He  had  made  the  resolve,  it  would  seem, 
of  his  own  will  without  reference  to  the  Father's  ;  but  the 
immediate  approval  from  heaven  evinced  that  his  will  and  the 
Father's  were  entirely  at  one.  His  sense  of  perfect  unity 
with  the  Father  yet  perfect  freedom  of  choice  and  action 
on  his  own  part  he  asserted  later  in  Jerusalem.  "  There- 
fore doth  the  Father  love  me,"  he  said,  '"  because  I  lay  down 
my  life,  that  I  may  take  it  again.  No  one  taketh  it  away 
from  me,  but  I  lay  it  down  of  myself.  I  have  power  to 
lay  it  down,  and  I  have  power  to  take   it  again  "  (John  x, 

17,   18). 

In  this  episode  at  Mount  Hermon  Jesus  had  virtually 
laid  down  his  life.  There  remained  only  the  deepening 
details  of  making  his  resolve  an  actuality.  But  the  disciples, 
naturally  enough,  could  not  understand  it  in  this  its  initial 
stage.  They  were  bidden  keep  silent  about  it  until  the 
Son  of  Man  was  risen  (Matt,  xvii,  9).    It  was  the  eventual 

[573] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

taking  of  his  life  again,  the  uprise  from  this  earthly  stage  of 

being  to  a  higher,  that  made  its  motive  and  purpose  clear. 

For  such  a  masterful  departure  from  earth,  with  its  avails 

for  humanity,  it  is  natural  to  suppose  such  planning  and 

preparation    would    be   made  as   would   preserve 

The  Miracle     ^     ,  .  •  r  „      ■  ,    ■- 

Piauned  and  and  perpetuate  its  meaning  for  all  time  and  for 
Wrought  in  q]\  plancs  of  Spiritual  insight.  If  resurrection  is 
an  available  fact,  it  is  of  supreme  importance  that 
men  should  know  its  source,  its  power,  its  conditions.  Such 
seems  to  have  been  the  purpose  that  Jesus  had  in  mind  in 
his  miracle  of  the  raising  of  Lazarus,  as  narrated  in  John  xi ; 
which  event  we  anticipate  a  little  in  time  in  order  to  note 
its  relation  to  Jesus'  reckoning  on  departure. 

He  had  made  one  of  the  occasional  visits  to  Jerusalem 
which  the  fourth  gospel  reports  (John  x,  22-24),  ^^^ 
while  there  had  spoken  so  plainly  in  divine  character  ^  that 
the  Jews  were  on  the  point  of  stoning  him  for  blasphemy 
(John  X,  31).  He  escaped  their  hands,  however,  and  with- 
drew to  Bethany  across  the  Jordan  (John  x,  40  ;  cf.  i,  28), 
where  for  some  time  he  taught  and  won  believers.  While 
there  word  was  sent  him  from  Bethany  near  Jerusalem  that 
his  friend  Lazarus  of  that  village  was  sick.  The  household 
to  which  Lazarus  belonged  consisted  of  three,  himself  and 
his  two  sisters  Martha  and  Mary ;  and  Jesus  was  intimate 
there,  it  being  probably  his  home  in  his  visits  to  Judea  (see 
Luke  x,  38-42).  All  were  sincere  believers  of  his  teaching, 
and  he  loved  them  (John  xi,  5).  It  was  the  sisters,  Martha 
and  Mary,  who  sent  him  word  of  their  brother's  illness. 

On  receiving  the  word,  however,  instead  of  going  at  once 
to  his  friend's  bedside,  he  remained  two  whole  days  where 
he  was,  making  in  the  meantime  such  explanations  as  indi- 
cate that  he  was  planning  not  a  cure  of  illness  but  a  restora- 
tion from  the  grave.  The  sickness,  he  said,  was  not  unto 
death  but  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  glorification  of  the 
1  See  above,  pp.  561  f. 

[574] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

Son  of  God  (John  xi,  4).  Then,  telling  his  disciples  plainly 
that  Lazarus  was  dead,  he  started  for  Judea,  and  on  arriving 
in  Bethany  found  that  Lazarus  had  been  four  days  buried. 
A  large  company  of  friends  of  the  family  (for  they  were 
connected  with  leading  families  in  Jerusalem)  followed  him 
as  he  went  to  the  tomb  ;  and  before  calling  Lazarus  forth 
to  life  he  uttered  a  public  thanksgiving  that  he  had  already 
been  heard  by  the  Father  (John  xi,  41-42).  He  had  already 
assured  Martha  too  of  the  power  of  risen  life  that  resided 
inherently  in  him  :  "I  am  the  resurrection,  and  the  life  : 
he  that  believeth  on  me,  though  he  die,  yet  shall  he  live  ; 
and  whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  on  me  shall  never  die  " 
(John  xi,  25  ;  cf.  viii,  51).  The  tremendous  miracle  that  he 
now  wrought  was  just  the  proof,  or,  as  the  gospel  of  John 
would  say,  the  sign,  of  this  truth.  It  was  one  of  the  great- 
est of  those  "acts  in  divine  character  "  ^  which  told  truths 
of  supreme  importance  to  men  and  yet  not  expressible 
otherwise  ;  truths  which,  left  untold,  would  leave  the  race 
of  men  infinitely  poorer. 

The  immediate  effect  of  this  notable  miracle  was  to  pre- 
cipitate the  action  of  the  leaders  and  chief  priests,  who  held 
Se  el  of  ^  council  and,  on  the  advice  of  Caiaphas  the  High 
the  Act  and  Pricst,  decreed  Jesus'  death  (John  xi,  47-53). 
the  Plan  Until  the  final  passover  season,  therefore,  when 
his  time  was  come  to  lay  down  his  life,  he  tarried  with 
the  disciples  in  a  place  near  the  wilderness  called  Ephraim 
(John  xi,  54).  To  the  power  of  the  life  that  was  in  him, 
therefore  (cf.  John  i,  4),  he  had  by  this  miracle  borne  witness, 
not  before  a  few  intimate  disciples  merely  but  before  the 
leading  classes  and  in  a  public  way.  As  a  consequence  the 
common  people  were  ready  to  acknowledge  his  Messiahship 
by  popular  acclaim  (John  xii,  12-15)  \  but  the  leaders,  coun- 
seled by  the  High  Priest,  fearing  for  the  political  security 
of  their  nation,  decided  that  he  must  die  (John  xi,  47-52). 
1  See  above,  pp.  562  f. 

[575] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

In  reckoning  on  .departure,  however,  Jesus,  as  we  have 
seen,  had  in  mind  not  only  death  but  resurrection  ;  and  this 
miracle  at  Bethany  seems  to  have  been  planned  in  order  to 
make  resurrection  a  fact  intelligible  and  available.  His  own 
uprise  from  death  would  show,  indeed,  the  personal  victory  of 
his  life  over  the  bondage  of  death  ;  but  it  was  not  for  him- 
self that  he  lived  his  life  ;  it  was  to  be  a  light  and  power 
for  men.  By  calling  Lazarus  back  from  the  grave,  to  live 
henceforth  in  the  memory  and  influence  of  that  experience, 
he  furnished  a  concrete  object  lesson  of  renewed  life  which 
should  remain  when  he  himself  had  gone  to  the  Father 
(cf.  John  xiv,  J).  A  man  between  whom  and  him  was  the 
tie  of  a  reciprocal  love  would  thus  be  a  living  witness  to 
the  power  of  life  and  the  abolition  of  death  (cf.  2  Tim.  i,  10) 
inherent  in  such  relation.  It  was  in  this  way,  as  he  said, 
that  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Father  himself  would  be 
glorified  (John  xi,  4,  40), 

Note.  On  a  careful  study  of  data  one  is  inclined  to  attribute  a  still 
broader  plan  in  this  miracle  —  a  plan  not  only  that  he  as  Son  of  God 
should  be  glorified  but  that  an  adequate  record  of  his  divine  claim  should 
be  made.  This  plan  is  concerned  with  the  identification  of  the  author 
of  the  fourth  gospel,  which  we  know  is  anonymous  except  as  ascribed 
to  "  the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved  "  (John  xxi,  24). 

If  Lazarus,  whom  Jesus  is  repeatedly  said, to  have  loved,  was  the 
same  as  the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved,  we  cannot  well  miss  the 
suggestion  that  comes  to  light  in  this  deliberately  planned  miracle : 
a  suggestion  of  Jesus'  far-seeing  purpose  similar  to  that  in  pursuance 
of  which  he  trained  the  twelve  to  become  apostles  or  representatives 
(cf.  Luke  vi,  1  3),  and  came  later  from  his  risen  realm  to  make  Saul  of 
Tarsus  a  "chosen  vessel"  bearing  the  Christ-values  to  the- Gentile 
world  (Acts  ix,  15).  In  other  words,  though  he  himself  wrote  nothing, 
yet  this  event  seems  to  show  that  he  planned  to  have  the  deepest  and 
highest  truths  of  his  ministry  .ndequately  written.  To  present  these 
truths  in  their  inwardness  a  specially  susceptible  mind  was  necessary : 
and  the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved  evinces  throughout  the  gospel  the 
possession  of  such  a  mind.^ 

1  See  below,  pp.  641-64  j. 
[576] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 


III 


Rounding  Off  the  Earthly  Ministry.  From  the  account 
of  the  miracle  at  Bethany,  considered  here  as  part  of  his 
preparation  for  departure,  we  return  now  to  a  somewhat 
earlier  period  of  Jesus'  career,  the  period  beginning  after 
the  Transfiguration. 

St.  Luke's  words,  "And  it  came  to  pass,  when  the  days 
were  well-nigh  come  that  he  should  be  received  up,  he  stead- 
fastly set  his  face  to  go  to  Jerusalem  "  (Luke  ix,  51),  give  a 
just  indication  of  the  solemn  and  deliberate  spirit  in  which 
Jesus  ordered  the  last  few  months  of  his  earthly  ministry. 
By  his  frequent  mention  of  the  fact  that  Jesus  was  approach- 
ing the  city  of  his  martyrdom  (Luke  xvii,  1 1  ;  xviii,  3 1  ; 
xix,  II,  28),  Luke  shows  his  sense  of  the  momentousness 
of  the  journey,  which  he  narrates  much  more  fully  than  do 
the  other  evangelists.  It  was  a  kind  of  farewell  tour,  begin- 
ning near  Mount  Hermon  in  the  extreme  north  and  pur- 
sued in  a  leisurely  but  wisely  planned  progress  through  the 
numerous  districts  of  Galilee,  Samaria,  Perea,  and  Judea, 
where  his  earlier  ministry  had  been  or  where  he  desired  to 
effect  lodgment  of  his  truth  before  he  was  taken  away.  By 
this  time  he  had  the  apostles  quite  well  in  training  to  assist 
him  in  his  work  of  preaching  and  healing  (Luke  ix,  1,2); 
and  an  additional  seventy  were  appointed  to  go  forward  and 
prepare  for  his  entrance  into  the  various  cities  and  places 
(Luke  X,  i).  This  work  of  his  was  done  in  the  feeling  that 
time  was  short  and  that  every  word  and  deed  must  count 
for  the  most  possible.  "  I  have  a  baptism  to  be  baptized 
with,"  he  said,  "and  how  am  I  straitened  until  it  be  accom- 
plished !  "  (Luke  xii,  50).  This  remark  expresses  his  con- 
viction that  even  his  beneficent  work  of  help  and  healing, 
to  which  he  was  ordained  and  anointed,^  must  needs  rep- 
resent his  mission  in  a  cramped  and  limited  way,  until  the 

1  See  above,  p.  540. 

[577] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

supreme  meaning  is  put  to  his  life  and  his  ministry  reaches 
its  sacrificial  stage. 

His  later  teaching,  accordingly,  whether  addressed  to  the 
disciples,  to  the  multitudes,  or  to  the  upper  classes,  has  a 
His  Later  kind  of  definitive  note,  as  if  it  were  the  message 
Teaching  j-hat  he  would  leave  with  them  as  most  significant 
and  final.  To  the  disciples,  who,  quite  ignoring  his  predic- 
tions of  suffering  and  death,  clung  to  the  notion  of  a  worldly 
kingdom,  he  taught  lessons  of  humility  and  mutual  service 
(for  example.  Matt,  xviii)  and  of  that  readiness  for  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  which  consists  in  the  wise  employment  of 
talents  (Matt,  xxv,  14-30),  faithful  and  merciful  stewardship 
(Matt,  xxiv,  45-51),  and  the  keeping  of  lamps  filled  and  burn- 
ing (Matt,  xxv,  1-13).  To  the  general  hearers  he  gave  some 
of  his  tenderest  and  most  searching  parables,  as  if  he  would 
use  every  means  to  enlighten  them.  Such  were  the  parables 
of  the  Lost  Son  (Luke  xv,  11-32)  ;  of  the  Good  Samaritan 
(Luke  X,  29-37)  ;  of  Dives  and  Lazarus  (Luke  xvi,  19-31)  ; 
and  of  the  Pharisee  and  the  Publican  (Luke  xviii,  9-13). 
Some  of  his  later  parables,  like  the  story  of  the  Unjust  Judge 
(Luke  xviii,  1-8),  of  the  Unfaithful  Steward  (Luke  xvi,  1-8), 
and  of  the  Laborers  in  the  Vineyard  (Matt,  xx,  1-16),  are 
paradoxical  in  the  audacity  of  their  implications,  yet  all  in 
the  interest  of  a  more  robust  faith.  It  is  in  these  later 
utterances,  too,  that  he  denounces  the  besetting  falseness 
and  hypocrisy  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  ;  ^  and  to  these 
leaders  of  the  nation  he  gives  the  parable  of  the  Rejection 
of  the  King's  Son  (Luke  xx,  9-18).  All  this  is  like  setting 
his  messages,  as  it  were,  in  final  order,  as  that  on  which 
believers  and  unbelievers  alike  could  permanently  depend. 
The  crown  and  culmination  of  these  utterances,  perhaps, 
is  the  tremendous  picture  he  draws  of  the  judgment  that 
the  Son  of  Man  will  pronounce  at  the  end  on  all  nations 
(Matt,  xxv,  31-46).    It  portrays  in  simple  terms  the  reversal 

1  See  above,  pp.  554  f. 

[578] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

of  human  judgment  whTch  comes  with  the  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity and  makes  it,  in  its  gentle  yet  penetrative  way,  the 
most  revolutionary  power  in  the  world. 

As  Jesus  enters  upon  the  final  week,  which  he  spends 
in  Jerusalem,  Bethany,  and  the  Mount  of  Olives,  the  inten- 
sity of  his  mood  increases  ;  his  words  become  more  pro- 
phetic, more  vehement,  and  more  like  those  of  a  judge 
pronouncing  doom.  Availing  himself  of  a  symbolic  predic- 
tion in  Zechariah  (see  Zech.  ix,  9),  —  for  both  in  relation 
to  law  and  to  prophecy  he  comes  to  fulfill,  —  he  makes  a 
dramatic  entry  into  Jerusalem,  riding  upon  an  ass  and  with 
shouting  multitudes  accompanying  (Matt,  xxi,  i-ii  ;  Mark 
xi,  i-ii  ;  Luke  xix,  28-40).  As,  coming  over  the  crest  of 
the  hill  from  Bethany,  he  reaches  the  point  on  the  Mount 
of  Olives  where  the  city  comes  into  magnificent  view,  he 
pauses  to  weep  over  it  and  to  prophesy  its  destruction,  — 
one  of  his  most  moving  utterances  in  divine  character 
(Luke  xix,  41-44).  After  some  days  of  teaching  and  con- 
troversy in  the  Temple,  as  he  has  left  it  for  the  last  time 
and  is  sitting  on  the  hillside  over  against  it,  he  gives  almost 
as  if  casually  his  most  notable  prophetic  discourse  to  his 
disciples.^  In  response  to  their  expressed  admiration  of  its 
splendor  and  magnificence,  he  prophesies  that  the  days  are 
coming  when  not  one  stone  of  the  Temple  will  be  left  upon 
another.  This  leads  to  predictions  of  great  hardships  and 
trials,  of  great  opportunities  also  for  wisdom  and  faith  and 
steadfastness,  of  the  end  of  the  age  with  its  apocalyptic 
signs,  and  of  the  eventual  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man  to 
those  who,  like  the  fig  tree  when  summer  approaches,  have 
put  forth  their  wealth  of  faith  and  fruitfulness  to  meet  him 
(Matt,  xxiv  ;  Mark  xiii ;  Luke  xxi,  S-36).  It  is  Jesus'  own 
contribution  to  apocalyptic  literature  ;  in  which  images  dic- 
tated by  prophetic  fantasy  are  replaced  by  spiritual  values 
that  all  may  realize  and  feel. 

^  See  "The  Presage  in  Jesus'  Words,"  pp.  660  ff.,  below. 
[579] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

The  story  of  the  close  of  Jesus'  ministry  is  but  the  de- 
tailed account  of  his  deliberate  laying  down  of  his  life,  his 
It  is  voluntary  committal  of  himself  to  the  hands  of 

Finished  ^qj^  for  their  acceptance  or  rejection,  until,  re- 
gardless of  its  immediate  result  of  apparent  failure,  his  final 
word  from  the  cross  was,  "It  is  finished"  (John  xix,  30). 
It  does  not  belong  to  the  scope  of  our  treatment  to  recount 
the  last  days  of  Jesus  on  earth.  The  story  of  them  is  told, 
with  variations  of  order,  fullness,  and  incident,  but  with  little 
if  any  real  discrepancy,  by  all  four  Evangelists. 

What  suits  our  purpose  is  rather  to  note  that  although  he 
let  men  do  their  will  upon  him  (cf.  Matt,  xvii,  12),  without 
resistance  or  evasion  on  his  part  (cf.  Matt,  xxvi,  53  ;  Luke 
xxii,  53),  it  all  came  about  in  consistent  pursuance  of  the 
ideal  that  he  had  formed  from  the  beginning  :  the  ideal  of 
what  is  due  to  the  integrity  and  perfecting  of  the  true  man- 
hood. Nothing  short  of  the  life  he  lived  and  the  death  he 
died  —  with  all  its  accompaniment  of  divine  power  and 
wisdom  and  grace  —  could  fully  express  its  worth  and 
potency. 

This  ministry  of  Jesus  came  too  in  what  an  apostle  has 
called  "  the  fullness  of  the  time  "  (Gal.  iv,  4),  when,  as  it  were, 
the  stage  of  human  nature  was  set  and  the  properties  ready. 
Jesus,  with  the  sense  of  this  age-preparation  upon  him,  was 
acting  consciously  as  the  Protagonist  in  a  great  world  trans- 
action,— -as  it  were,  a  mighty  dramatic  action,  in  which  the 
theme,  wrought  out  by  actual  fullness  of  life,  was  the  achieve- 
ment of  manhood  in  perfect  loyalty  to  its  divine  parentage 
and  powers.  This  we  may  regard  as  the  large  literary  aspect 
of  his  life  among  men.  To  live  such  a  life  was  to  be, 
whether  recognized  or  not,  not  only  man  but  the  divinely 
anointed  King  of  men.  The  best  expression  of  this  idea' 
perhaps,  is  Jesus'  definition  of  his  life's  meaning  and  aim, 
as  given  to  the  Roman  procurator  Pontius  Pilate,  when  he 
stood  before  that  ruler  a  prisoner  and  self-confessed  king : 

[580] 


THE  SON  OF  MAN 

"  Thou  sayest  that  I  am  a  king.  To  this  end  have  I  been 
born,  and  to  this  end  am  I  come  into  the  world,  that  I  should 
bear  witness  unto  the  truth"  (John  xviii,  37).  The  word 
"bear  witness,"  marturco,  is  the  word  from  which  comes 
our  word  "martyr,"  —  a  term  which  his  death  and  the  death 
of  many  who  lived  in  his  faith  have  made  forever  sacred. 
His  witness  to  the  highest  truth  and  beauty  of  manhood  went 
on  heroically  and  consistently  until  its  end  was  martyrdom. 

For  three  days  after  his  crucifixion  the  end  seemed  to 
all  like  ruin  and  failure.  It  was  a  time  of  suspense  and 
Yet  Only  doubt,  as  if  the  promise  of  manhood  and  eternal 
Just  Begun  jjfg  were  falsified.  Then  an  event  occurred  which, 
however  we  seek  to  make  it  realistic,  changed  the  mood  of 
the  disciples  from  despair  to  bewildered  awe  and  wonder, 
and  later  to  a  permanence  of  courage  and  beneficence  and 
joy  such  as  they  had  never  experienced  before.  They 
went  forth  announcing  to  the  world  that  he  could  not  be 
holden  of  death  (Acts  ii,  24),  but  that  in  his  continued  fife 
the  power  of  death  itself  was  conquered.  The  event  of  his 
life  which  was  the  first  to  be  preached  (Acts  ii,  32)  and  the 
earliest  to  be  recorded  in  writing  (i  Cor.  xv,  3-8)  was  his 
resurrection  from  the  dead. 

If  Jesus'  death  on  the  cross  was  the  sign  that  one  stage 
of  his  active  ministry  was  finished,  the  resurrection  three 
days  later  was  the  signal  of  a  new  beginning.  Henceforth 
the  same  ministry  was  to  be  perpetuated  by  the  activities  of 
men,  living  and  working  in  the  spirit  of  the  Christ.  St.  Luke, 
going  on  from  his  gospel  to  write  a  continuation  of  history, 
is  accurate  in  calling  the  former  treatise  as  "  concerning  all 
that  Jesus  began  both  to  do  and  to  teach  "  (Acts  i,  i).  The 
beginning  implies  continuation  ;  and  in  that  continuation  not 
only  will  new  and  greater  works  be  done  but  new  discoveries 
made  in  the  facts  and  values  of  that  life  which  has  proved 
itself  the  light  of  men, 

[581] 


CHAPTER   X 

THE  LITERATURE  OF   FACT 

[a.d.  30  onward] 

For  Fact,  well-trusted,  reasons  and  persuades, 

Is  gnomic,  cutting,  or  ironical, 

Draws  tears,  or  is  a  tocsin  to  arouse,  — 

Can  hold  all  figures  of  the  orator 

In  one  plain  sentence ;  has  her  pauses  too  — 

Eloquent  silence  at  the  chasm  abrupt 

Where  knowledge  ceases.  —  George  Eliot 

AFTER  the  ascension  of  Jesus  (Acts  i),  which  left  the 
l\^  disciples  with  a  new  courage  and  hope,  and  after  the 
wonderful  illumination  which  they  experienced  at  Pentecost 
(Acts  ii),  the  little  Christian  community,  still  identified  with 
Judaism  and  its  associations,  had  no  thought  of  making  a 
literature,  or  even  of  needing  any  books  except  those  of  the 
Old  Testament.  Their  first  interests  were  active  and  prac- 
tical. They  were  concerned  to  make  known  the  momentous 
new  truth  that  had  been  revealed  to  them  and  to  avail  them- 
selves of  its  power  and  promise.  For  centuries  their  nation 
had  subsisted  largely  on  a  literature  of  prophetic  strain  ;  had 
been  looking  for  an  ideal  king  and  a  golden  age.  And  now 
that  in  the  conviction  of  these  disciples,  henceforth  called 
apostles,  the  era  of  fulfillment  was  come,  the  practical  prpb- 
lem  was  not  to  write  or  philosophize  about  it  but  to  make  it 
available  to  the  largest  extent  possible  and  to  naturalize  its 
results  in  the  world. 

In  course  of  time,  however,  a  literature  must  in  the  nature 
of  things  rise  out  of  this  Christian  faith  and  activity.    The 

[582] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  FACT 

primal  materials  for  such  a  literature,  in  the  form  of  oral 
address  and  teaching,  were  forthcoming  at  once.  It  was 
what  the  apostles  went  about  proclaiming,  in  order  to  induce 
men  to  believe  what  they  had  seen  and  experienced.  This 
oral  utterance,  to  begin  with,  based  itself  on  simple  concrete 
fact.  It  was  concerned  with  reporting  what  had  actually 
taken  place  —  events  so  unique  and  far-reaching  that  the  wit- 
nesses of  them  could  not  keep  silent.  Peter's  answer  to  the 
rulers  who  would  forbid  him  gives  the  keynote  of  their  initial 
motive  :  "  Whether  it  is  right  in  t.he  sight  of  God  to  hearken 
unto  you  rather  than  unto  God,  judge  ye  ;  for  we  cannot  but 
speak  the  things  which  we  saw  and  heard  "  (Acts  iv,  19,  20). 
Such  reporting  of  events  and  their  meaning  was  the  begin- 
ning of  a  literature. 

The  tone  of  this  literature  is  not  philosophical  nor  exposi- 
tory. It  is  not  conceived  in  the  feeling  of  poetry  or  eloquence. 
It  is  simple  announcement  of  fact  and  fulfillment.  The 
general  name  it  has  received  contains  just  this  implication. 
It  is  called  euaggelion  (literally,  "good  news"),  from  which 
comes  the  Saxon  translation  "gospel"  (that  is,  "good  spell"  or 
"  news  "),  a  term  adopted  from  the  suggestion  of  the  Second 
Isaiah,  which  Jesus  used  as  a  description  of  his  own  mission 
(Isa.  xl,  9;  Ixi,  I  ;  Luke  iv,  18).  "Good  news,"  "good 
tidings,"  and  "  gospel  "  are  synonymous  terms.  The  men 
in  the  early  church  who,  in  distinction  from  apostles  and 
prophets,  had  this  duty  of  announcement  specifically  in  charge 
were  called  Evangelists  (Eph.  iv,  11;  Acts  xxi,  8). 

I.  The  Apostles  and  their  Initial  Message 

"  As  the  Father  hath  sent  me,  even  so  send  I  you " 
(John  XX,  21),  —  in  these  simple  words  Christ  commissioned 
his  disciples  after  he  was  risen  from  the  dead.  Their  work 
was  to  be,  as  nearly  as  they  could  do  it,  a  reproduction,  in 
spirit  and  kind,  of  his  :  a  work  of  disseminating  the  truth  of 

[583] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

life  as  he  had  taught  them  to  apprehend  it.  They  imme- 
diately felt  the  pressure  of  this  responsibility.  From  being 
disciples  (that  is,  "  learners  "),  which  was  all  they  could  be  so 
long  as  he  was  with  them,  they  assumed  the  function  to 
which  from  the  beginning  he  had  destined  them,  and  the 
name  which  by  anticipation  he  had  given  them  (Luke  vi,  13). 
Henceforth  they  were  apostles,  that  is,  men  "sent  forth," 
namely,  as  representatives  or  ambassadors,  with  authority  to 
represent  to  the  world  One  who  had  proved  himself  Messiah, 
King  of  men. 

Their  first  step  after  the  ascension  of  Christ  was  to  make 
good  their  original  number,  twelve,  which  had  been  broken 
The  Apos-  ^^^^°  ^y  ^^^^  defection  of  Judas.  This  they  did  by 
toiic  choosing  to  fill  his  place  a  man  named  Matthias, 

°  ^^^  taking  care  that  he  should  be  duly  qualified    for 

the  responsible  distinction.  The  simple  qualification  that 
they  sought  is  worthy  of  note.  It  was  that  he  should  be  one 
of  the  men  "that  have  companied  with  us  all  the  time  that 
the  Lord  Jesus  went  in  and  went  out  among  us,  beginning 
from  the  baptism  of  John,  unto  the  day  that  he  was  received 
up  from  us.  Of  these  must  one  become  a  witness  with  us  of 
his  resurrection"  (Acts  i,  21,  22).  They  made  the  choice 
not  wholly  in  reliance  on  their  own  wisdom,  but,  selecting 
two  candidates,  cast  lots  between  them,  leaving  the  decision 
by  prayer  to  their  ascended  Lord  (Acts  i,  23-26). 

This  primitive  organization  —  a  college  of  twelve  apostles 
—  appears  to  have  been  merely  provisional,  having  in  view 
the  object  of  proclaiming  facts  with  which  they  had  become 
familiar :  the  facts  of  a  life  and  death  which  had  had  such  a 
wonderful  outcome  of  resurrection.  The  number  twelve  was 
maintained  partly  because  it  was  the  Lord's  chosen  number, 
but  also  —  as  they  were  Jews  —  with  reference  to  the  twelve 
tribes  of  Israel,  now  scattered  abroad  through  the  world 
(cf.  Matt,  xix,  28  ;  James  i,  i).  Of  the  subsequent  history 
of  most  of  these  twelve  little  or  nothing  is  known.    Only 

[584] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  FACT 

Peter  and  John  are  mentioned  for  their  activity  in  Jerusalem, 
and  James  the  brother  of  John  for  his  martyrdom,  which 
occurred  under  Herod  Agrippa  (Acts  xii,  2).  These  three 
were  just  the  ones  of  the  twelve  who  had  been  most  intimate 
with  Jesus,  and  to  their  care  was  left  the  initiation  of  the 
gospel  announcement. 

As  time  went  on,  however,  and  the  needs  of  manning 
their  mission  increased,  the  apostolic  company  seems  to  have 
been  open  to  new  additions.  James  the  brother  of  Jesus, 
who  had  not  been  a  disciple  during  the  Lord's  lifetime, 
became  the  head  of  the  Jerusalem  church,  and  is  spoken  of 
as  an  apostle  (Gal.  i,  19)  ;  and  Paul,  a  converted  Pharisee, 
became  the  most  active  and  able  of  the  apostles.  The  later 
requisite  for  apostleship  seems  to  have  been  that  the  man 
should  have  seen  the  risen  Lord  (cf.  i  Cor.  ix,  i),  and  this 
was  true  both  of  James  and  Paul  (for  James,  see  i  Cor.  xv,  7). 
It  is  not  unlikely,  indeed,  that  the  company  of  more  than 
five  hundred  (i  Cor.  xv,  .6)  who  saw  him  acquired  a  distinc- 
tion akin  to  apostolic  because  they  could  vouch  for  the  fact 
that  he  had  risen. 


Their  Fitting  Kind  of  Work.  The  apostles  who  after 
their  Lord's  departure  were  charged  with  the  first  promul- 
gation of  the  truth  were  men  in  the  ordinary  walks  of  life, 
rather  than  aristocrats  or  scholars  ;  in  touch,  therefore,  with 
the  mind  and  needs  of  common  people,  and  thus  in  genuine 
sympathy  with  all,  from  the  humblest  up.  P^or  the  work  that 
first  needed  doing  —  telling  a  straight  story  of  facts  —  such 
men  were  the  best  instruments.  On  the  one  hand,  they 
had  not  become  sophisticated  with  the  refinements  or  preju- 
dices of  academic  learning.  They  had  no  inherited  system 
of  theology  or  ecclesiastical  organization  to  maintain.  On 
the  other  hand,  they  had  been  intimate  companions  of  Jesus, 
learning  his  way  from  the  beginning ;  and  this  in  itself  was 

[585] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

a  liberal  education.  As  for  book  learning,  they  had,  like  all 
earnest-minded  Jews,  a  sound  working  knowledge  of  the  Old 
Testament,  such  as  their  life-long  conversance  with  syna- 
gogue instruction  would  impart ;  which  knowledge  had  of 
course  been  greatly  enriched  and  clarified  by  their  inter- 
course with  the  great  Teacher, 

Notes,  i.  The  Apostles'' Co7iversance  7vith  Scripture.  Peter's  inti- 
mate knowledge  of  Scripture  may  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  in  his  first 
discourse,  in  which  he  announces  to  the  disciples  the  need  of  a  new  elec- 
tion to  the  apostolate  (Acts  i,  20),  he  quotes  from  Psa.  Ixix  and  cix ;  and 
in  his  great  Pentecost  discourse  (Acts  ii,  14-36)  he  quotes  from  Joel  ii, 
28  ff. ;  from  Psa.  xvi,  8  ff. ;  and  from  Psa.  ex,  i .  Peter  and  John  in  their 
thanksgiving  (Acts  iv,  25,  26)  quote  two  verses  of  Psa.  ii.  Peter  in  his 
second  great  discourse  (Acts  iii,  1 2-26)  quotes  several  passages  from 
Genesis  and  Deuteronomy.  Stephen's  great  discourse  (Acts  vii)  is  a 
masterly  resume  of  Hebrew  history  from  Abraham  to  Solomon,  with 
extended  quotations  from  Amos  v  and  Isa.  Ixvi  (Acts  vii,  42,  43,  49,  50). 

2.  Bearing  oil  Accuracy  of  Factual  Report.  As  to  the  fitness  of  these 
primitive  apostles  for  reporting  the  words  of  Jesus,  as  these  are  later  given 
in  the  gospels,  A.  C.  Benson  ("  From  a  College  Window,"  p.  346)  says : 
"  The  words  and  sayings  of  Christ  emerge  from  the  narrative,  though 
in  places  it  seems  as  though  they  had  been  imperfectly  apprehended,  as 
containing  and  expressing  thoughts  quite  outside  the  range  of  the  minds 
that  recorded  them  ;  and  thus  possess  an  authenticity  which  is  confirmed 
and  proved  by  the  immature  mental  grasp  of  those  who  compiled  the 
records,  in  a  way  in  which  it  could  not  have  been  proved  if  the  com- 
pilers had  been  obviously  men  of  mental  acuteness  and  far-reaching 
philosophical  grasp." 

Accordingly,  both  their  native  endowments  and  their 
acquired  ability  were  at  once  perceived  by  the  educated  class 
who  saw  their  efficiency.  The  same  leaders  who  a  few 
months  before  had  inquired  about  Jesus,  "  How  knoweth 
this  man  letters,  having  never  learned.?"  (John  vii,  15)  are 
the  ones  of  whom  it  is  now  said,  "  When  they  saw  the  bold- 
ness of  Peter  and  John,  and  had  perceived  that  they  were 
unlearned  {agrammatoi)  and  ignorant  {idiotai)  men,  they 
marvelled  ;  and  they  took  knowledge  of  them,  that  they  had 

[586] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  FACT 

been  with  Jesus  "  (Acts  iv,  1 3).  The  source  of  their  remarkable 
assurance  and  power  was  evident.  They  were  fitted  in  their 
degree,  as  the  Master  had  been  before  them,  to  speak  with 
authority  and  not  as  .the  scribes  (cf.  Matt,  vii,  29). 

It  will  be  noted,  however,  that  they  did  not  attempt  to  do 
anything  for  which  their  birth  and  training  had  not  fitted 
Their  Sense    them.  They  were  plain  men  of  the  people,  —  Gali- 
of  Scope  and   leans,  who  had  lived  remote  from  centers  of  learn- 
imits  -^g^  1^^^  j^  contact  with  everyday  affairs.    They 

did  not  set  up  as  professional  teachers  or  philosophers  ;  did 
not  pose  as  prophets  or  sages ;  did  not  attempt  to  demolish 
the  prevailing  moral  and  religious  order  of  their  day.  They 
felt  themselves  rather  in  charge  of  a  tremendous  fact,  of 
which  their  own  experience  was  cognizant :  fact  which  a 
plain  man  could  tell  as  well  as  a  learned  one  ;  fact  which 
could  not  remain  inert,  but  opened  out  into  vital  meanings, 
fulfilling  and  clarifying  the  great  hopes  which  their  nation 
had  cherished.  The  benefits  of  this  fact  they  felt  themselves 
authorized  and  obligated,  as  apostles  of  a  living  Lord  and 
King,  to  make  available  to  all  who  would  accept  it. 

Such  a  work  produced  its  own  fitting  style  of  utterance. 
Not  argument,  not  exposition,  not  elaborate  description  and 
narration.  The  tone  and  effect  of  their  initial  message  was 
essentially  preaching ;  that  is,  announcement,  proclamation, 
of  what  they  had  seen  and  heard,  without  theory,  or  elabo- 
ration, or.  speculation.  In  later  years  it  was  thus  put  by  an 
Evangelist  whose  sense  of  it  was  peculiarly  penetrative : 
"  That  which  we  have  heard,  that  which  we  have  seen  with 
our  eyes,  that  which  we  beheld,  and  our  hands  handled, 
concerning  the  Word  of  life,  .  .  .  that  which  we  have  seen 
and  heard  declare  we  unto  you  also,  that  ye  also  may  have 
fellowship  with  us"  (i  John  i,  i,  3).  They  did  not  know 
the  full  secret  of  it  at  first ;  but  they  could  state  a  visible 
and  audible  fact.  For  such  a  work  men  of  this  sterling 
class,  and  with  their  unique  preparation  of  experience,  were 

[587]       • 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LLrKRATURE 

eminently  qualified.  Their  lack  of  academic  refinements 
and  prepossessions  was,  indeed,  an  advantage.  There  was 
so  much  less  to  warp  or  obscure  their  vision,  so  much  less 
blur  on  the  mirror  of  their  consciousnQss. 

II 

Four  Phases  of  the  First  Apostolic  Message.  The  main 
substance  of  these  plain  men's  preaching  may  be  given  in 
four  statements,  which  to  them  had  the  force  of  simple 
matter  of  fact. 

1.  It  begins  with  the  culminating  event  of  Jesus'  earthly 
life  :  his  resurrection  from  the  dead.  Their  Master,  who 
had  so  cruelly  suffered  death,  was  alive  again  ;  they  had 
seen  him  and  had  received  his  commission.  This  is  pro- 
claimed as  an  actual  and  literal  occurrence,  a  proved  fact 
of  human  life.  Their  sense  of  its  importance  is  seen  in 
their  choosing  to  repair  their  number  one  who,  like  them, 
could  serve  as  a  witness  of  his  resurrection  (Acts  i,  22). 
They  could  vouch  for  the  truth  that,  as  Peter  expressed  it, 
it  was  not  possible  that  Jesus  should  be  holden  of  death 
(Acts  ii,  24).  This  is  the  central  announcement  in  all  their 
preaching,  —  this,  rather  than  the  details  of  his  works  and 
words  before  resurrection.  It  was  an  event  full  of  cheer 
and  hope  to  those  who  had  cast  in  their  lot  with  him  in 
earthly  life  —  an  event  full  of  untold  meaning  for  men. 

Along  with  this  announcement,  which  naturally  would 
bring  dismay  on  those  who  had  mistakenly  put  him  to 
death,  the  apostles  assured  their  nation  that  this  error  was 
not  laid  up  against  them  (Acts  iii,  17-20),  but  that  all  might 
avail  themselves  of  his  pardon  and  favor.  Thus,  to  begin 
with,  the  apostles  regarded  themselves  as  witnesses  to  an 
event  which  in  every  sense  and  to  every  man  was  good 
news, — an  evangel,  a  gospel. 

2.  Nor  was  it  merely  of  a  past  event  that  the  apostles 
were  witnesses  and  interpreters.    They  were  eager  also  to 

•       [  588  ] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  FACT 

explain  a  present  power  on  men  whose  effects  all  could  see. 
At  the  Pentecost  season,  some  ten  days  after  their  Master's 
ascension,  while  the  company  of  the  apostles  were  together 
in  Jerusalem,  suddenly  a  strange  new  enthusiasm  came  upon 
them  which  quickened  their  faculties  and  gave  them  an  in- 
sight and  intensity  of  life  like  that  of  the  ancient  prophets 
(Acts  ii,  1-4).  This  illumination  and  power,  which  they 
recognized  as  the  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  they  identi- 
fied also  as  the  spirit  of  Christ  bestowed  upon  them  in  pur- 
suance of  his  promise  (Acts  ii,  33  ;  cf.  i,  8)  ;  also  as  the 
fulfillment  of  a  prediction  made  long  before  by  the  prophet 
Joel  (Acts  ii,  17-21).  All  this  was  to  them  the  plain  evi- 
dence of  their  Master's  continued  power  and  work  on  earth. 
He  was  still  conducting  his  ministry,  but  on  a  larger  scale 
and  with  more  inward  and  vital  effects. 

3.  All  these  surprising  things — the  return  from  death 
and  the  uprise  of  their  Master,  the  access  of  illumination 
in  them  - —  opened  their  minds  to  what  they  had  inherited 
from  the  past.  These  things  were  the  fulfillment  of  prophe- 
cies that  had  long  been  familiar  to  them  but  had  not  been 
duly  heeded.  It  had  been  difficult  for  Jesus  while  with 
them  to  convince  them  that  he  must  die.  Now  it  was  per- 
fectly plain  to  them  that  not  only  he  but  the  prophetic  lit- 
erature had  foreseen  death  and  resurrection  as  essential  ele- 
ments in  the  career  of  the  Messiah  (see  Acts  ii,  23  ;  iii,  18  ; 
cf.  Luke  xxiv,  26).  Thus  the  apostles  became  practical  inter- 
preters, or  rather  identifiers,  of  prophecy,  notably  of  things 
which  till  then  had  been  neglected  or  disbelieved ;  maintain- 
ing that  the  Messiah  as  foretold  must  pass  through  an 
experience  essentially  the  same  as  the  actual  experience  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth.  This  of  course  was  a  necessary  step  in 
the  work  of  getting  Jesus  accepted  as  Messiah  by  his  own 
people.  It  identified  him  with  men's  already  available  fund 
of  facts  and  ideas  ;  joined  the  Old  Testament,  so  to  say, 
with  the  nucleus  and  subject  matter  of  the  New. 

[  589  ] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

4.  Not  only  had  the  apostles  the  conviction  that  Jesus  had 
fulfilled  all  the  conditions  of  prophecy,  —  they  had  also  the 
assurance  of  a  new  future  not  yet  fulfilled  or  shaped.  This 
assurance  took  the  form  of  a  firm  belief  that  their  Lord  (for 
so  they  now  called  him),  after  a  temporary  sojourn  in  the 
heavens,  would  return  to  earth  in  person,  and  judge  the  world, 
and  organize  his  kingdom  as  a  visible  realm  (cf .  Acts  i,  1 1  ; 
iii,  21).  It  seems,  indeed,  to  have  been  their  idea,  perhaps  for 
many  years,  that  he  had  not  yet  actually  assumed  his  Messiah- 
ship  but  that  he  would  do  so  on  his  return  to  earth  ;  and  in 
the  early  years  of  the  church  the  title  by  which  he  was  known 
was  not  Messiah  or  Christ  but  simply  Lord  (see  Rom.  x,  9  ; 
I  Cor.  xii,  3  ;  cf.  John  xiii,  13).  While  they  were  awaiting 
his  return,  which  they  deemed  was  due  within  that  genera- 
tion (cf.  Matt,  xxiv,  33,  34),  they  were  to  submit  to  his 
lordship,  acting  as  his  representatives  and  preparing  men 
to  receive  him  worthily.  He  himself  had  predicted  that  he 
would  sometime  return  in  visible  glory  (cf.  Matt,  xxvi,  64)  ; 
of  that  they  were  sure.  But  he  had  warned  them  against 
setting  the  time,  which,  indeed,  the  Master  himself  did  not 
know  (Acts  i,  7  ;  Matt,  xxiv,  36),  and  which  was  not  arbi- 
trary with  God  but  conditioned  on  the  history  of  man. 

This  prophecy  of  Christ's  coming,  or,  as  it  was  called, 
his  parousia,  or  presence,  was,  like  all  prophecies,  fore- 
shortened, and  men  could  not  realize  except  by  actual  ex- 
perience the  immense  growth  and  enlargement  in  manhood 
that  must  intervene.  It  was  really  the  prophecy  of  an  evolu- 
tion still  in  progress  and  still  becoming  more  lucid  and 
reasonable,  which,  however,  to  be  received  at  all,  must  at 
first  be  apprehended  in  a  concrete  form  corresponding  to 
the  concrete  events  they  had  seen  (cf.  Acts  i,  11).  Mean- 
while, the  apostles'  present  duty  was  clear.  They,  and  all 
whom  they  could  induce  to  believe  with  them,  had  but  to 
wait  in  hope,  and  cultivate  the  spirit  of  Christ,  and  be 
ready  (cf.  i  Thess.  v,    i-ii). 

[590] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  FACT 

Thus  in  these  four  main  topics  of  their  new  way  of  Hfe 
the  primitive  Christian  community,  taught  by  apostles,  were 
put  in  possession  of  a  working  message  which  simple  and 
plain  men  could  handle.  It  was  based  not  on  theories  nor 
on  scholarship,  but  on  such  fact  as  all  could  apprehend 
and  on  such  deductions  from  fact  as  were  naturally  sug- 
gested by  the  literature  in  which  all  were  schooled.  And 
'out  of  it,  as  time  went  on,  grew  the  substance  of  the  gospel 
story,  as  we  read  it  especially  in  the  first  three,  the  so-called 
synoptic,  gospels. 

II.  The  Growth  of  the  Synoptic  Gospels 

The  gospel  —  that  is,  a  fund  of  fact  announced  and  inter- 
preted as  good  news  —  is,  as  it  must  needs  be,  the  rock-bed 
of  all  New  Testament  literature.  No  amount  of  religious 
philosophy  or  speculation  can  dispense  with  that.  The  facts 
of  Christ's  life,  ministry,  death,  resurrection,  ascension,  must 
be  made  known  to  the  world  by  those  who  personally  observed 
them,  in  order  to  gain  the  world's  belief  and  allegiance. 
The  meaning  of  those  facts  can  be  left  to  men's  growing 
intelligence  and  power  to  assimilate ;  just  as  growth  can  be 
awaited  from  the  planting  and  germination  of  a  seed. 

Note.  How  the  Apostles  viewed  it.  The  apostles  insist  on  the 
distinction  between  fact  and  theory  and  on  the  literary  vehicle  proper 
to  each.  "  The  foolishness  of  preaching,"  that  is,  of  depending  on  the 
announcement  and  demonstration  of  fact,  St.  Paul  ironically  calls  the 
method  he  has  found  effectual  for  his  purpose,  and  contrasts  it,  on 
the  one  hand,  with  doing  miraculous  things  and,  on  the  other,  with 
wisdom,  or  philosophy,  that  is,  the  reasonings  and  speculations  of  men. 
This  recognizes  that  the  basis  of  his  message  was  not  logic  but  matter- 
of-fact,  or,  as  he  puts  it,  "  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  crucified  "  (see  i  Cor.  i, 
18-25).  —  In  a  reminiscence  of  the  most  astonishing  event  of  Jesus' 
life,  namely,  his  transfiguration,  St.  Peter,  in  the  consciousness  that 
truth  is  stranger  than  fiction,  says,  "  We  did  not  follow  cunningly 
devised  fables,  when  we  made  known  unto  you  the  power  and  presence 
{paroKsian)  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  "  (2  Pet.  i,  16). 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 


The  Germinating  Time.  l>ut  the  mere  statement  of  facts 
gives  only  information,  not  literature  ;  does  not  even  tell  the 
truth,  but  only  furnishes  materials  out  of  which  the  living 
and  ordered  truth  of  the  matter  must  be  evolved.^  And  to 
realize  the  truth  of  things,  in  its  order,  relations,  and  pro- 
portions, takes  time,  —  more  time  as  the  truth  is  more  far- 
reaching  and  momentous.  The  minds  alike  of  those  who 
proclaim  the  truth  and  of  those  who  receive  it  must  grow 
and  ripen  ;  must  from  a  confused  mass  of  incidents  and 
sayings  get  a  just  idea  of  the  bearings  and  relationships  of 
things.  So  it  was  in  the  years  succeeding  Christ's  earthly 
ministry.  While  the  early  apostles  had  charge,  indeed,  of  a 
unique  fund  of  fact,  both  their  own  realization  of  the  events 
of  Jesus'  ministry  was  too  hazy  and  undigested,  and  the  state 
of  the  infant  church  was  too  primitive,  for  the  speedy  devel- 
opment of  a  Christian  literature.  A  literature  is  the  result 
of  a  matured  organic  growth  of  thought  and  life.  The  men 
who  were  to  teach  the  world  such  momentous  things  must 
outgrow  their  rudimental  notions,  correct  their  errors  of 
realization  and  interpretation,  discard  their  Jev^ash  provin- 
cialism, and  take  the  pace  of  the  world's  thought.  And  all 
this  must  be  a  slow,  gradual  process,  working  its  results 
into  shape  in  numerous  communities  of  disciples  and  con- 
verts scattered  through  the  provinces  from  Jerusalem  to 
Rome,  who  were  learning  little  by  little  what  it  was  to  be 
Christians. 

Accordingly,  for  the  first  generation  of  Christians  •  the 
events  and  words  of  Christ's  life  were  too  uncoordinated  in 
memory,  and  perhaps  too  constantly  in  process  of  accumula- 
tion, to  be  drawn  up  in  permanent  literary  form.  The  apos- 
tles and  many  others  were  living  who  had  seen  and  heard 

1  Cf.  Wilson,  "The  Truth  of  the  Matter,"  from  "Mere  Literature," 
pp.  i6i  f. 

[592] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  FACT 

him,  and  in  their  preaching  they  referred  to  his  ministry 
familiarly  as  to  well-known  recent  events.  Less  pains  were 
taken  also,  probably,  to  preserve  the  facts  in  writing,  because 
during  all  the  first  generation  (cf.  Mark  xiii,  30)  the  belief 
was  prevalent  that  Christ's  second  coming  was  near.  There 
was  felt  to  be  little  occasion,  therefore,  to  make  the  life  of 
One  only  temporarily  absent  the  subject  of  a  formal  and 
finished  history. 

As  the  survivors  of  Jesus'  time  began,  however,  to  die  off, 
and  then  as  Jerusalem  was  destroyed  (a.d.  70),  breaking  up 
The  Changed  the  old  Order  of  things  without  a  recognized 
Perspective  Messianic  order  to  replace  it,  the  need  was  in- 
creasingly felt  of  a  permanent  record  for  the  use  of  genera- 
tions to  come.  The  immediate  influence  of  the  primal 
announcements  —  resurrection,  spiritual  outpouring,  fulfill- 
ment, parousia  —  was  somewhat  dulled  or,  rather,  diffused, 
and  the  church  was  settling  down  to  a  steady  pace  of  growth 
and  organization.  For  this  state  of  things  a  literature  more 
distinctive  than  that  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  more  educa- 
tive than  these  simple  matters  of  announcement,  was  needed. 
Besides,  the  facts  of  Jesus'  ministry,  as  they  accumulated, 
were  standing  out  more  clearly  related  and  proportioned,,  as 
men  viewed  them  more  at  a  distance  of  time.  In  a  word, 
the  times  were  getting  ripe  for  the  evolution  of  a  new  line 
of  sacred  literature. 

Note.  Tennyson  has  described  how  the  obscurity  of  present  experi- 
ence passes  into  the  clearness  and  realization  due  to  a  more  distant 
view  ("In   Memoriam,"  xxiv):    ■ 

Or  that  the  past  will  always  win 

A  glory  from  its  being  far, 

And  orb  into  the  perfect  star 
We  saw  not  when  we  moved  therein. 

Browning  describes  the  same  historic  consciousness  more  at  length, 
applying  the  need  of  it  to  this  very  time  of  gospel  development 
(A   Death  in  the  Desert,  11.  235-243): 

[593] 


GUIDEBOOK  fO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Just  thus,  ye  needs  must  apprehend  what  truth 
I  see,  reduced  to  plain  historic  fact, 
Diminished  into  clearness,  proved  a  point 
And  far  away  :  ye  would  withdraw  your  sense 
From  out  eternity,  strain  it  upon  time. 
Then  stand  before  that  fact,  that  Life  and  Death, 
Stay  there  at  gaze,  till  it  dispart,  dispread, 
As  though  a  star  should  open  out,  all  sides, 
Grow  the  world  on  you,  as  it  is  my  world. 

This  is  assumed  to  have  been  said  by  St.  John,  the  supposed  writer  of 
the  fourth  gospel,  just  as,  late  in  the  first  century,  he  was  about  to  die. 

II 

Source-Gospels  and  Logia.^  Meanwhile,  through  the  preach- 
ing of  apostoHc  eyewitnesses,  there  were  gradually  accumu- 
lated stores  of  reminiscence,  in  which  Jesus'  words  and  acts 
were  recounted  from  mouth  to  mouth,  and  circulated  from 
one  church  to  another,  until  a  goodly  body  of  such  material 
was  in  general  possession  and  used  for  teaching  purposes. 
How  such  facts  of  Jesus'  ministry  would  pass  into  common 
currency  may  be  illustrated  by  a  quotation  made  by  St.  Paul 
in  one  of  his  discourses  (Acts  xx,  35),  in  which  he,  though 
not  an  ear-witness,  refers  to  a  saying  of  Jesus,  not  elsewhere 
recorded,  which  evidently  he  and  his  hearers  had  obtained 
from  common  and  well-known  report.  A  store  of  such  things 
was  gradually  accumulating  (cf.  i  Tim.  vi,  3  for  recognition 
of  these)  and  keeping  alive  in  the  thought  of  the  Christian 
communities  the  mind  of  the  Master. 

This  material,  by  constant  retelling,  assumed  a  kind  of 
stereotyped  form,  which  favored  the  purity  and  carefulness 
of  the  tradition.  One  man's  reminiscence  would  be  corrected 
or  tempered  by  another's,  and  the  sense  of  its  sacred  im- 
port would  deter  the  reverent  disciples  from  taking  liberties 
with  it.  Doubtless,  too,  this  material  was  in  various  centers 
noted  down  in  writing,  and  thus  in  a  measure  secured  from 
fanciful  additions  and  exaggerations.    That  there  were  such 

^  Cf.  Ilill,  "  Introduction  to  the  Life  of  Christ,"  pp.  26  ff. 
[594] 


THE  litp:rature  of  fact 

written  collections  seems  certain  from  the  fact  that  the  same 
event  is  told  with  variations  in  the  different  gospels,  and  yet 
with  a  general  uniformity  of  phraseology  which  betokens  a 
general  base  of  supplies.  There  could  not  have  been  very 
many  such  collections  in  existence,  however,  before  the 
gospels  as  we  have  them  began  to  be  compiled,  else  more 
traces  of  them  would  be  found. 

Note.  In  the  preface  to  his  gospel  St.  Luke  speaks  of  narratives 
in  such  a  way  as  to  indicate  that  by  his  time  gospel-making  was  quite 
vigorous.  These  were  evidently  so  imperfect,  however,  that  his  own 
gospel  and  those  of  the  other  evangelists  drove  them  out  by  the  survival 
of  the  fittest.  In  Pick,  "  Paralipomena :  Remains  of  Gospels  and  Say- 
ings of  Christ,"  is  a  carefully  compiled  collection  of  fragments  and  scat- 
tered sayings  from  all  the  early  sources  that  have  been  discovered. 

Of  the  supposable  first-hand  gospel  sources,  three  main 
ones  may  be  named  which  by  tradition  have  been  associated 
Personal        with  three  of  the  immediate  apostles. 
Sources  j_  With  the  apostle  Peter  has  been  associated 

a  plain  and  vigorous  narrative,  now  identified  with  the  Gos- 
pel of  Mark,  which  Justin  Martyr  (cir.  100-165)  calls  the 
Memorabilia  of  Peter.^  Its  connection  with  Peter  is  not 
absolutely  proved,  though  very  possible  and  natural.  Yrom 
the  fact  that  the  events  of  the  last  week  are  more  full  and 
vivid  than  the  rest,  it  seems  certain  that  the  writer  was  a 
resident  of  Jerusalem  and  an  eyewitness  who,  as  it  would 
seem,  added  material  of  his  own  to  what  he  had  heard  from 
St.  Peter.  One  uncoordinated  incident  (Mark  xiv,  51,  52) 
seems  quite  motiveless  unless  it  happened  to  the  narrator 
himself,  who,  if  this  is  so,  was  then  a  young  man.  This 
may  well  have  been  John  Mark,  who  afterward  was  an  atten- 
dant of  the  apostles  (Acts  xii,  25  ;  xv,  37,  39),  whom  Peter 
calls  '"  his  son  "  (i  Pet.  v,  13),  and  in  whose  mother's  house 
the  early  Christians  used  to  gather  (Acts  xii,  12).  The  asso- 
ciation of  this  gospel  with  Peter  is  thus  very  probable. 

1  .See  ^urkitt,  "  Earliest  Sources  for  the  Life  of  Jesus,"  p.  84. 

[595] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

2.  With  the  apostle  Matthew,  on  much  less  definite 
grounds,  is  associated  a  body  of  so-called  logia,  or  sayings 
of  Jesus,  written  first  in  Aramaic.  These,  however,  may 
have  been  mere  fugitive  notes  of  Jesus'  discourses,  and  per- 
haps of  the  coincidences  between  events  of  Jesus'  life  and 
prophecy,  such  as  are  numerous  in  Matthew's  gospel.  It  is 
Papias  who  attributes  such  a  body  of  sayings  to  the  publican 
disciple  Matthew,  but  the  original  document  is  hopelessly 
lost,  and  it  cannot  be  determined  what  it  contained.  With 
the  compiling  of  finished  gospels  it  would  naturally  disappear. 

3.  With  the  apostle  John  is  associated  the  fourth  gospel ; 
this  because  he  is  identified  with  "  the  disciple  whom  Jesus 
loved,"  who,  according  to  the  testimonial  appended  to  the 
gospel,  "  is  the  disciple  that  beareth  witness  of  these  things, 
and  wrote  these  things  "  (John  xxi,  24).  Neither  is  this  dis- 
ciple's name  given,  nor  is  John's  name  mentioned  in  the 
gospel ;  and  it  is  only  by  tradition  that  John's  name  is  asso- 
ciated with  the  composition  of  it.  What  is  of  more  impor- 
tance, however,  is  the  fact  that  if  written  by  the  disciple  in 
question  the  gospel  is  an  eyewitness  source.  The  first-hand 
material  that  it  contains,  however,  has  in  the  course  of  many 
years  (for  the  gospel  was  at  all  events  written  near  the  end 
of  the  century),  with  the  change  due  to  time  and  ripened 
meditation,  assumed  a  character  very  different  from  that  of 
the  other  gospels.  This  has  caused  scholars  to  consider  it  in 
a  class  by  itself,  apart  from  the  synoptics.  It  will  come  up  for 
later  consideration,  as  belonging  to  the  Literature  of  Values.^ 

Besides  the  accounts  traceable  to  the  apostles  themselves, 
it  is  not  unlikely  that  single  episodes  or  discourses  of  Jesus' 
ministry  may  have  circulated  in  detached  documents,^  and 
afterwards  have  been  incorporated  in  the  completed  gospels. 
His  discourse  on  the  Last  Times,  Mark  xiii  and  Matthew 
xxiv,  which  would  have  special  significance  for  its  bearing 

1  See  "The  Story  Told  Once  More,"  pp.  645-651,  below. 

2  See  Biukitt,  "  The  Gospel  History  and  its  Transmission^"  pp.  62,  127. 

[596] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  FACT 

on  the  parousia,  would  be  a  likely  case  in  point.  The  story 
of  the  woman  taken  in  adultery  (John  viii,  i-ii),  which  is 
lacking  in  many  ancient  manuscripts  and  yet  has  on  it 
the  hall-mark  of  authenticity,  may  be  another  example.  Nor 
will  it  do  to  ignore  the  numerous  reminiscences  of  unnamed 
persons  which  must  have  been  forthcoming  when  our  gos- 
pels began  to  be  compiled  ;  much  as  stories  of  the  life  of 
Lincoln  are  collected  nowadays.  It  will  be  noted  that  about 
the  same  time  has  elapsed  since  Lincoln's  death  as  had  then 
elapsed  since  the  crucifixion,  and  we  can  think  how  easy  it 
was  to  verify  or  correct,  for  permanent  record,  stories  that 
had  acquired  a  more  or  less  stereot}'ped  form  by  oral  re- 
counting. St.  Luke  intimates  in  his  preface  (Luke  i,  2)  that 
some  of  his  information  came  from  individual  sources.  His 
account  of  the  birth  of  John  the  Baptist  and  of  the  birth 
and  infancy  of  Jesus  (Luke  i  and  ii),  if  not  pure  invention, 
must  have  been  of  this  private  sort. 

Of  the  three  synoptic  gospels  as  we  have  them,  Mark, 
which  was  the  earliest  written,  may  be  regarded  as  also  a 
Summary  of  sourcc-gospel,  the  Only  one  that  has  come  down 
Apparent  to  US  intact.  It  is  made  the  basis  of  their  com- 
Sources  ^^j,^^   gospels   by  the   authors  both  of   Matthew 

and  of  Luke  ;  in  fact,  the  substance  of  almost  every  verse  of 
Mark  may  be  found  in  one  or  both  of  them.  It  furnished 
the  biographical  and  chronological  backbone  for  the  compos- 
ite gospel  narrative  —  a  groundwork  of  plan  from  which  the 
others  mav  at  times  digress,  but  to  which  thev  return. 

Besides  this  primitive  gospel,  the  authors  of  Matthew  and 
Luke  drew  from  another  source,  which  the  critics  call  O  (for 
the  German  Quelle,  "  source  "),  especially  for  the  discourses 
of  Jesus.  This  mtiv  be  the  source  that  Papias  meant  when 
he  spoke  of  the  logia,  or  sayings  of  Matthew,  but  there  is 
no  certainty. 

In  addition  to  these,  Luke  had  certain  unknown  sources 
of  his  own,   both  for  the  infancy  and  early  )-ears  and  for 

[597] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

the  latter  part  of  the  ministry.  From  these  unknown  sources 
he  has  drawn  some  of  the  most  significant  parables,  like 
that  of  the  Lost  Son,  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  of  Dives  and 
Lazarus,  and  of  the  Pharisee  and  the  Publican.  Already, 
when  he  begins  to  write,  he  says  that  "  many  have  taken 
in  hand  to  draw  up  a  narrative";  which  implies  that  he 
had  much  material  to  sift  and  adjust  to  his  purpose. 

Ill 

The  Synoptic  Gospels  as  Completed.  Beginning  with  the 
earliest  written,  the  Gospel  of  Mark,  we  find  in  the  succes- 
sive gospels  a  kind  of  gradation.  From  a  literature  of  pure 
fact  or  reportage,  such  as  would  come  from  a  plain  and 
forthright  mind  like  that  of  Peter,  through  rising  degrees 
of  a  growing  sense  for  values,  we  find  in  the  other  gospels 
a  tendency  to  add  coloring  and  interpretative  elements.  This 
corresponds  to  the  growing  consciousness  on  the  part  of  the 
Christian  communities,  as  time  went  on,  of  deeper  meanings 
in  Christ's  personality  and  ministry,  and  the  desire  to  coordi- 
nate these  meanings  with  the  known  values  of  life.  The 
same  spiritual  desire  and  growth  have  continued  until  this 
day,  and  will  always  continue ;  creating  in  a  true  sense  an 
unending  Bible,  as  each  new  generation  sees  things  in  new 
lights  and  applications.  The  gospels  embody  but  the  first 
stage  and  tendency,  the  stage  suited  to  the  development  of 
a  New  Testament  canon ;  and  in  this  stage,  even  in  the  case 
of  the  latest  gospel,  that  of  John,  these  reports  of  Jesus'  life 
and  words  remain  essentially  a  literature  of  fact. 

This  gospel  answers  not  unfitly  to  what  we  should  naturally 
expect  if  we  assumed  it  to  have  come,  as  tradition  says,  from 
I.  The  Gospel  the  preaching  of  Peter.  One  of  his  reported  dis- 
of  Mark  courscs  in  the  Book  of  Acts,  indeed,  contains  a 
kind  of  epitome  of  this  whole  gospel  in  a  few  verses.  Peter 
himself  was  an  apostolic  preacher  and  leader,  not  a  man  of 

[  598  ] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  FACT 

letters.  But  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  John  Mark, 
whose  intimacy  with  the  apostles  we  have  seen,  was  the 
compiler  and  writer ;  not  a  mere  amanuensis,  but  himself 
to  some  extent,  especially  during  the  last  days  in  Jerusalem, 
an  eyewitness. 

Note.  Peter's  discourse,  Acts  x,  34-43,  was  given  to  the  centurion 
Cornelius  and  his  household,  being  the  first  address  Peter  gave  to  a 
Gentile  audience.  This  epitome  of  his  gospel  message  is  here  given 
from  "  The  Corrected  English  New  Testament  "  : 

"  The  message  which  he  (God)  sent  to  the  children  of  Israel,  preach- 
ing good  tidings  of  peace  through  Jesus  Christ  —  he  is  Lord  of  all  —  even 
that  word,  as  ye  yourselves  know,  was  published  throughout  all  Judea, 
beginning  with  Galilee  —  after  the  baptism  which  John  preached  —  con- 
cerning Jesus  of  Nazareth  :  how  God  anointed  him  with  the  Holy  Spirit 
and  with  power,  and  how  he  went  about  doing  good,  and  healing  all  who 
were  oppressed  by  the  devil ;  for  God  was  with  him.  And  we  are  wit- 
nesses of  all  things  which,  both  in  the  country  of  the  Jews  and  in  Jeru- 
salem, he  did ;  whom  also  they  slew,  hanging  him  on  a  tree.  Him  God 
raised  on  the  third  day ;  and  showed  him  openly,  not  to  all  the  people, 
but  to  witnesses  chosen  before  by  God,  even  to  us,  who  ate  and  drank 
with  him  after  he  had  risen  from  the  dead.  And  he  commanded  us  to 
preach  to  the  people,  and  to  testify  that  this  is  he  who  was  appointed  by 
God  to  be  the  judge  of  living  and  dead.  To  him  all  the  prophets  give 
witness  that,  through  his  name,  whosoever  believeth  on  him  shall  receive 
forgiveness  of  sins." 

The  purpose  of  the  book  is  simple  and  direct.  Beginning 
not  at  the  birth  of  Jesus,  as  a  biography  would,  but  at  the 
preaching  of  John  the  Baptist  when  Jesus  entered  upon  his 
ministry,  its  aim  is  to  set  forth  "  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God  "  (Mark  i,  i).  Designed  for  Roman  readers, 
to  whom  the  idea  of  the  Son  of  God  with  its  connotation 
of  dignity  and  power  would  be  natural  and  congenial,^  the 
gospel  concerns  itself  with  a  plain  narration  of  the  things 
Jesus  did  during  his  ministry  —  works  which,  without  assert- 
ing divinity,  yet  evince  the  tremendous  power  inherent  in  One 
who  acts  in  divine  character.    Of  his  teaching  the  gospel  has 

^  Cf.  the  words  of  Roman  centurions,  Luke  vii,  6-8 ;  Mark  xv,  39. 
[599] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

not  so  full  and  systematic  reports  as  have  the  others-,  nor  is 
it  concerned  to  compare  his  life  minutely  with  prophetic  pre- 
diction. It  simply  recounts,  in  a  matter-of-fact  way,  what  he 
did  and  the  words  immediately  connected  therewith,  as  "he 
went  about  doing  good,  and  healing  all  that  were  oppressed 
of  the  devil." 

The  story  is  told  with  simple  directness  and  vigor,  and 
with  many  such  touches  as  only  an  eyewitness  would  give. 
Of  all  the  synoptic  gospels  this  gives  most  the  impression 
of  first-hand  contact  with  the  uncolored  facts  of  Jesus'  life. 
As  a  source-gospel  it  furnished,  as  has  already  been  noted, 
the  framework  of  order  and  sequence  on  which  all  the 
accounts  of  the  ministry  are  based. 

As  the  Gospel  of  Mark  views  Jesus  as  the  Son  of  God, 
the  Gospel  of  Matthew  presents  him  no  less  distinctly  as  the 
2.  The  Gospel  Messiah,  the  Coming  One  foretold  by  the  prophets 
of  Matthew  ^^^^  expected  as  the  King  of  Israel.  The  portrayal 
of  him  in  that  light  would  of  course  be  designed  primarily 
for  Christians  of  Jewish  antecedents.  The  theme  that  seems 
to  have  been  in  the  writer's  mind  may  be  expressed  as  :  The 
Messianic  King  and  the  Beginnings  of  his  Reign. 

The  gospel  accordingly  begins  with  a  genealogy  (Matt,  i, 
I- 1 7)  giving  Jesus'  descent  from  David  and  Abraham  ;  and 
the  stories  of  his  infancy  narrate  the  royal  homage  paid  him 
by  Eastern  Magi,  and  the  rivalry  of  which  King  Herod 
was  suspicious  and  jealous  and  which  he  sought  to  suppress 
by  the  child's  death  (Matt.  ii).  After  Jesus'  baptism,  where 
John  the  Baptist  was  conscious  of  his  majesty  (Matt,  iii,  14), 
his  ordeal  of  temptation  determined  the  manner  of  his  king- 
dom as  contrasted  with  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth  (iv,  i-ii). 
So  throughout  the  gospel  the  subject  matter  is  keyed  to  the 
note  of  royalty,  Jesus  is  the  Messiah,  King  of  men,  and  his 
words  are  concerned  with  the  principles  of  his  kingdom,  the 
kingdom  of  heaven. 

[600] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  FACT 

This  gospel,  more  didactic  than  Mark,  concerns  itself 
more  with  the  teachings  of  Jesus  than  with  the  historic 
sequence  of  his  ministry  ;  which  teachings  it  gathers  into 
groups  forming  several  somewhat  extended  discourses,  with 
enough  narrative  material  between  to  give  them  a  natural 
setting  and  coordination.  The  most  important  of  these  dis- 
courses is  the  so-called  Sermon  on  the  Mount  (chaps,  v-vii), 
which,  though  its  sections  may  have  been  given  at  different 
times,  is  so  related  as  to  embody  a  kind  of  charter  or  mani- 
festo of  the  kingdom  of  heaven 'and  to  reveal  the  relation 
of  this  new  charter  to  the  old  law. 

Note.  On  the  theory  that  the  discourses  of  Jesus  form  the  main 
scheme  of  Matthew's  gospel,  while  the  incidents  are  connective  and 
ancillary,  the  gospel  may  be  regarded  as  having  for  substance  five  didactic 
groups  or  discourses  :  , 

1.  The  charter  or  principle  of  the  kingdom,  chaps,  v-vii. 

2.  The  charge  to  the  apostles  who  have  the  kingdom  to  maintain, 
chap.  X. 

3.  The  definition  of  the  kingdom  in  parabolic  teaching,  chap.  xiii. 

4.  The  internal  relations  of  the  kingdom  and  its  spirit,  chap,  xviii. 

5.  The  culmination  of  the  kingdom  and  the  eternal  test  of  citizenship 
therein,  chaps,  xxiv,  xxv. 

Another  striking  characteristic  of  this  gospel  is  its  frequent 
citation  of  Old  Testament  prophecies.  These  citations  differ 
much  in  didactic  value.  Some  of  them  betoken  a  large  and 
liberal  sense  of  prophetic  meaning  and  scope  (for  example, 
ii,  6  ;  iv,  15  ;  xii,  18-21)  ;  others  are  more  far-fetched,  as  if 
the  fulfillment  of  prophecy  meant  verifying  coincidences  of 
prediction  and  event  (for  example,  ii,  18,  23).  A  kind  of  mid- 
dle sense  of  values  may  be  seen  in  i,  23  ;  xxi,  5.  This  variety, 
whether  so  intended  or  not,  has  the  effect  of  finding  and 
satisfying  different  grades  of  mind,  —  the  unlearned  and 
literal  as  well  as  the  scholarly  and  poetic.  To  all  classes 
the  writer  would  certainly  show  that  Jesus  was  indeed  the 
Messianic  king  who,  though  so  different  from  anticipation,  yet 
fulfilled  all  reasonable  expectations  and  gave  them  reality. 

[Goi] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Luke,  who  was  the  author  both  of  this  gospel  and  of  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  seems  to  have  designed  the  t^'o  as 

^jjg  continuous  with  each   other.    In  the  preface  to 

Gospel  of  the  Acts  (Acts  i,  1-5)  he  speaks  of  the  gospel 
^"*^^  as  a  "  treatise  .  ,  .  concerning  all  that  Jesus  began 

both  to  do  and  to  teach,  until  the  day  in  which  he  was  received 
up."  The  two  histories,  then,  he  regarded  as  two  stages 
in  an  essentially  continuous  ministry;  namely,  first,  as  con- 
ducted personally  in  the  body  and,  secondly,  as  conducted 
through  the  apostles  by  his  directing  and  supporting  spirit. 

If  the  first  two  gospels  are  concerned  with  the  divine 
aspects  of  Jesus'  personality,  as  Son  of  God  (Mark)  and 
as  Messiah  (Matthew),  Luke  may  be  called  more  distinc- 
tively the  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  Man.  It  is  especially  in 
Jesus'  sweet  and  strong  humar^ity,  his  helpful  fellowship 
with  all,  that  Luke  regards  him.  The  Lukan  accounts  of 
the  infancy  and  childhood  portray  him  as  a  very  human 
child,  yet  filled  with  wisdom  and  piety  ;  and  his  descent  is 
traced  back  not  to  David  or  Abraham  but  to  Adam,  the 
father  of  humanity.  It  is  Luke,  as  we  have  noted,  who 
narrates  how  Jesus  took  upon  himself  the  ministry  of  heal- 
ing and  emancipation  prophesied  in  the  Second  Isaiah 
(Luke  iv,  16-22).  His  gospel  preserves  for  us  also  many 
instances  of  Jesus'  kindness  and  good  will  not  to  the  Jewish 
nation  alone  or  to  disciples  but  to  man  as  man.  He  is 
indeed  the  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners  and  risks  odium 
thereby  (cf.  xv,  i,  2  ;  xix,  7)  ;  yet  while  in  his  parable  he 
satirizes  the  self-righteousness  of  the  Pharisee  (xviii,  9-13), 
he  does  not  hesitate  to  eat  with  Pharisees,  even  while  in 
their  presence  he  accepts  the  homage  of  an  outcast  woman. 
The  parables  of  the  Lost  Son  (xv,  11-32)  and  of  the  Good 
Samaritan  (x,  30-35),  both  peculiar  to  Luke,  give  a  fair  key- 
note of  the  broad  humanity  of  the  gospel  ;  such  a  spirit  as 
would  become  one  who,  himself  a  Gentile  Christian,  was  an 
intimate  companion  of  Paul,  the  great  ajDOstle  to  the  Gentiles. 

[602] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  FACT 

Luke  writes  more  like  a  historian  than  do  the  other  Evan- 
gehsts  :  giving  the  narrative  not  in  mere  annaHstic  sequence 
hke  Mark,  nor  in  didactic  order  hke  Matthew,  but  with  the 
causes  and  motives  that  give  the  events  a  historic  relation 
and  coherence.  He  is  also  the  master  of  a  more  finished 
literary  style.  As  he  himself  was  not  an  eyewitness  of  any 
of  Jesus'  life,  nor  a  native  of  Palestine,  he  shows  a  certain 
detachment  from  the  inherited  ideas  and  prejudices  of  the 
Jews,  which  qualifies  him  all  the  better  to  weigh  and  verify 
his  historical  material  and  put  it  in  a  form  that  readers  of 
all  nations  can  appropriate. 

Note.  The  fourth  gospel,  the  profoundest  account  of  Jesus'  person- 
ality and  work,  comes  up  more  fitly,  perhaps,  in  the  next  chapter.  The 
Literature  of  Values  (see  p.  645).  This,  not  because  it  is  untrue  to  fact, 
or  to  eyewitness  testimony,  but  because  it  was  written  at  a  time  so  much 
later  that  the  facts  of  Jesus'  personality  had  come  to  be  understood  in 
their  larger  and  divine  values.  It  is  written,  in  other  words,  not  with 
a  merely  historical  but  with  a  predominantly  interpretative  purpose 
(see  John  xx,  31). 

It  was  late  in  the  first  century  before  the  narrative  gos- 
pels, as  completed,  became  the  literary  basis  for  the  educa- 
During  the  tion  of  the  growing  church.  We  are  to  note, 
Transition  howevcr,  that  it  was  not  because  the  facts  of  Jesus' 
life  were  remote  or  had  not  come  to  light  that  the  syste- 
matic record  of  them  was  so  long  delayed.  The  exact 
opposite  is  closer  to  the  truth.  It  was  because  they  were 
so  near,  because  they  were  a  present  luminous  reality  instead 
of  a  past  and  fading  history,  that  the  century  waited  so  long 
for  a  written  gospel.  Meanwhile,  through  the  companion- 
ship and  instruction  of  apostles  v\'ho  had  seen  and  heard, 
through  apostolic  letters  sent  to  the  churches  and-  circulated 
from  community  to  community,  and  through  the  felt  impul- 
sion and  power  of  the  spirit  of  Christ,  the  faith  of  the  early 
Christians  was  kept  living  and  operative,  forming  an  ccclcsia, 
a  body  of  believers  with  common  motives  and  ideals  separate 

[603] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

from  the  world.  It  is  to  the  record  of  this  body,  and  the 
movement  of  its  activities  while  waiting  for  the  completed 
literature  of  fact,  that  we  now  turn. 

III.  TiiF,  Acts  ok  the  Apostles 

As  we  see  by  comparing  the  preface  to  the  Gospel  of 
Luke  with  that  to  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  the  same  per- 
son who  wrote  the  gospel  wrote  also  the  other  account,  ad- 
dressing both  to  a  certain  Theophilus  (Luke  i,  3  ;  Acts  i,  i), 
who  was  undoubtedly  a  Gentile  Christian.  In  writing  the 
Acts  he  had  the  advantage,  for  parts  of  it,  of  being  an  eye- 
witness, having  been  a  companion  of  St.  Paul  on  some  of 
the  latter's  missionary  journeys,  —  a  fact  indicated  by  his 
use  of  the  first  person  in  narrating  the  incidents  at  which 
he  was  present.  For  the  parts  of  the*  history  not  relating 
to  St.  Paul  he  had  to  depend,  as  in  the  compilation  of  his 
gospel,  on  the  written  and  oral  reports  of  other  persons. 
The  history  is  brought  down  to  the  time  of  St.  Paul's  first 
imprisonment  at  Rome,  but  whether  written  before  or  after 
the  apostle's  death  is  uncertain. 


As  Continuation  of  a  Prior  History.  The  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  written  by  Luke,  is  a  history  projected  as  a 
continuation  of  his  gospel  to  give  an  account  of  Christ's 
work  through  authorized  representatives,  as  these  witnessed 
to  him  and  proclaimed  his  truth  from  Jerusalem  to  Rome. 
The  two  books  give,  then,  in  one  connected  view  an 
account  of  the  Christian  movement  from  the  birth  of  Jesus 
to  the  introduction  of  his  teachings  in  the  capital  of  the 
world.  From  there  the  movement  could  be  trusted  to  radi- 
ate and  grow  until  the  whole  earth  responded  to  its  influence. 

Luke's  warrant  for  presenting  his  history  in  this  form  and 
compass  is  intimated  in  Christ's  charge  to  his  apostles  just 
before   his  ascension.     "It   is  not  for  you,"   he   said,   "to 

[604] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  FACT 

know  times  or  seasons,  which  the  Father  hath  set  within  his 
own  authority.  But  ye  shall  receive  power,  when  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  come  upon  you  ;  and  ye  shall  be  my  witnesses  both 
in  Jerusalem  and  in  all  Judea  and  Samaria,  and  unto  the 
uttermost  part  of  the  earth  "  (Acts  i,  7,  8).  They  had  sup- 
posed that  he  would  speedily  set  up  his  kingdom  through 
the  supernatural  power  which  his  resurrection  had  conferred 
(cf.  Acts  i,  6).  Instead  of  encouraging  that  hope,  however, 
he  directed  therri  to  institute  a  movement  of  teaching  and 
preaching  similiar  to  what  his  had  been,  without  reference 
to  time  and  with  no  limitation  of  territory,  leaving  his  return 
to  take  care  of  itself.  Then  in  their  sight  he  ascended,  and 
angels,  appearing,  predicted  his  return  (i,  9-1 1). 

By  the  time  Luke  wrote  his  history  of  these  apostles' 
acts  the  true  state  of  the  case  was  clear.  They  were  the 
initiators  of  a  movement,  continuous  with  Jesus'  work,  which 
was  destined  to  be  world-wide  and  indefinitely  enduring,  a 
movement  taking  its  place  among  the  supremely  great  forces 
of  history.  Luke,  from  his  historical  instinct,  saw  this,  and 
recounted  its  initial  and  determinative  stages  in  the  Acts  of 

the  Apostles. 

II 

As  Related  to  the  Planting  of  Christianity.  The  history 
comprised  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  falls  into  two  well- 
marked  divisions  or  stages. 

I .  For  tweh-e  chapters  the  history  is  given  as  it  relates  to 
the  initial  steps  in  the  work  of  disseminating  the  gospel.  It 
tells  of  the  Pentecostal  revival  in  Jerusalem  ;  of  the  organi- 
zation of  systematic  ministry  under  Peter  and  John  as  leaders  ; 
of  the  appointment  of  deacons  or  helpers,  among  whom  were 
Stephen  the  first  martyr  and  Philip  the  first  itinerant  evan- 
gelist ;  of  the  rise  of  a  persecution  which  scattered  the  first 
group  of  workers  and  enlarged  the  sphere  of  their  ministry  ; 
of  the  conversion  of  Saul,  the  chief  persecutor  ;  of  the  begin- 
ning of  work  with  Gentiles  by  the  divinely  directed  agency 

[605] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

of  Peter  —  until  a  vigorous  center  of  work  both  with  Jews 
and  Gentiles  was  established  at  Antioch  in  northern  Syria. 
All  this  time  the  new  work  was  regarded,  and  regarded 
itself,  as  the  culmination  and  fulfillment  of  Judaism.  The 
faith  was  called  "The  Way"  (Acts  ix,  2  ;  xix,  9,  23  ;  xxii, 
4  ;  xxiv,  14,  22  ;  cf.  John  xiv,  6),  a  name  apparently  orig- 
inated by  St.  Paul  and  his  circle.  In  Antioch,  however, 
where  the  larger  significance  of  the  movement  began  to  be 
perceived  through  the  teaching  of  Barnabas,  the  disciples 
got  the  name  of  Christians  (see  Acts  xi,  26),  —  a  nickname 
at  first,  perhaps,  but  accepted,  like  the  modern  name 
"  Methodists,"  and  made  forever   honorable, 

2.  The  second  half  of  the  book,  chapters  xiii  to  xxviii,  is 
devoted  mainly  to  the  work  of  St.  Paul,  as  he  made  several 
extended  missionary  journeys,  working  with  extraordinary 
energy  and  encountering  untold  hardships  (cf.  2  Cor.  xi, 
22-33)  in  his  evangelizing  zeal,  which  was  as  great  for 
Christianity  as  his  enthusiasm  had  formerly  been  for  Phari- 
saic Judaism.  In  these  journeys  he  visited  the  chief  centers 
of  influence  and  culture  in  Asia  Minor,  Macedonia,  and 
Greece,  planting  churches  at  such  strategical  points  as 
Thessalonica,  Corinth,  Ephesus,  Philippi,  and  witnessing 
not  without  result  in  the  center  of  culture,  Athens ;  until, 
after  being  arrested  on  a  return  to  Jerusalem  and  appealing 
his  case  to  Caesar,  he  was  brought  as  a  state  prisoner  to 
Rome,  the  world's  capital. 

In  chapter  xvi,  10,  without  warning  or  explanation,  the 
writer  begins  to  speak  in  the  first  person  ('"  we  endeavored," 
etc.),  and  for  much  of  the  remaining  history  this  manner  of 
narration  is  kept  up,  showing  that  Luke  became  Paul's 
companion  (probably  at  Troas)  and  was  thus  not  only  an 
eyewitness  of  many  events  in  Paul's  career  but  in  a  posi- 
tion to  learn  many  earlier  facts  at  first  hand.  That  he  was 
a  faithful  and  congenial  friend  of  Paul  is  indicated  in  Paul's 
epistles,  where  he  is  designated  as  "the  beloved  physician" 

[606] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  FACT 

{Col.  iv,  14),  and  where  he  is  mentioned  as  Paul's  only  com- 
panion in  the  latter's  final  imprisonment  (2  Tim.  iv,  11). 

Thus  in  these  two  books,  the  Gospel  of  Luke  awd  the 
Acts,  we  have  the  continuous  story  of  Christian  times, 
from  the  birth  of  Jesus  until  the  closing  years  of  the 
greatest  apostle,  as  told  by  one  man,  a  faithful  and  compe- 
tent historian. 


[607] 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

[Cir.  A.D.  47  to  cir.  loo] 

OUR  distinction  in  this  chapter  and  the  preceding  be- 
tween the  Hterature  of  fact  and  the  hterature  of  values 
is  not  meant  as  a  hard  and  fast  discrimination.  It  names 
rather  the  general  design  and  trend  of  the  Gospels  and  the 
Acts  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  the  remaining  literature, 
mainly  in  epistolary  form,  on  the  other.  The  predominant 
object,  in  the  one  case,  is  to  give  information  of  things  not 
before  generally  known,  and,  in  the  other  case,  to  give  the 
meanings  of  things  already  received  and  familiar. 

But  the  two  kinds  of  literary  purpose  continually  meet 
and  blend.  The  gospels,  designed  for  all  sorts  and  condi- 
tions of  men,  must  not  only  narrate  the  facts  of  Jesus'  life 
but  must  give  them  in  such  order,  emphasis,  and  proportion 
as  to  reveal  their  values  in  the  sum  of  life  and  truth.  The 
epistles,  designed  for  the  communities  of  Christians  who 
already  know  and  accept  the  central  Personality,  not  only 
give  its  values  for  Christian  faith  and  doctrine  but  keep 
constantly  in  the  foreground  the  basis  of  fact.  This  is  well 
expressed  by  one  of  the  apostolic  writers  in  one  of  his  letters. 
"We  did  not  follow  cunningly  devised  fables,"  he  says, 
"  when  we  made  known  to  you  the  power  and  presence 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  but  we  were  eyewitnesses  of  his 
majesty"  (2  Pet.  i,  16).  Thus  the  Christian  writers'  sense 
of  the  values  of  which  they  were  in  charge  was  not  that 
of  something  speculative,  like  a  philosophy,  or  of  some- 
thing invented,  like  a  work  of  fiction,  but  of  the  simple 

[  608  ] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

application  of  facts  to  life,  —  facts  both  of  history  and  of 
personal  experience  (cf.  Acts  v,  32), 

Main  Lines  of  Values.  In  three  main  lines  the  literary 
and  spiritual  values  set  forth  in  the  epistolary  part  of  the 
New  Testament  may  be  summarized.  They  relate  them- 
selves to  past,  present,  and  future  ;  or  as  a  New  Testament 
writer,  sensible  of  the  fact  that  the  whole  order  of  values 
centers  in  one  divine  Person,  expresses  it:  "Jesus  Christ 
the  same  yesterday  and  to-day  and  for  ever"  (Heb.  xiii,  8). 

1 .  The  yalues  derived  from  the  past,  as  this  is  represented 
in  the  unique  history  of  the  Hebrew  race  and  in  the  body 
As  Derived  ^^  ^^^  Testament  literature.  Although  of  uni- 
from  the         vcrsal  appeal    and  validity,   these   values  derive 

mainly  from  Hebrew  sources  (cf.  John  iv,  22)  ;  yet 
doubtless  also  in  St.  Paul's  teaching  to  Gentiles  much  is 
adapted  to  inherited  Greek  ways  of  thinking.  Thus  the 
highest  truth  that  the  past  has  yielded,  through  its  history, 
its  poetry,  its  prophecy,  its  law  and  ritual,  is  related  to  the 
Christian  era  as  promise  to  realization,  or  as  shadow  to  sub- 
stance (cf.  Col.  ii,  17  ;  Heb.  x,  1)  ;  the  substance  or  fulfill- 
ment being  expressed  in  the  comprehensive  term  Christ 
("the  body,"  Col.  ii,  17).  The  inclusive  statement  of  this 
idea  is  given  at  the  beginning  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  : 
"  God,  having  of  old  time  spoken  unto  the  fathers  in  the 
prophets  by  divers  portions  and  in  divers  manners,  hath  at 
the  end  of  these  days  spoken  unto  us  in  his  Son,  whom  he 
appointed  heir  of  all  things  "  (Heb.  i,  i). 

2.  The  values  inherent  in  present  experience,  as  believers 
become  more  intimately  conversant  with   the  Christian  idea 
As  Available  ^^^  power.    These  all  center  in  the  type  of  life 
in  the  revealed  in  the  personality  of  Christ,  who  is  re- 
garded less  as  a  historic  personage  with  his  work 

finished  than  as  a  present,  vitalizing  spirit  continuing  his 
activity  by  the  inner  power  he  exerts  in  men's  lives.  Such 
power  his  followers  are  aware  of  in  themselves.    It  is  that 

[609] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

wonderful  illumination  and  working  energy  which  has  come 
upon  them  as  the  Holy  Spirit ;  a  power  which  they  identify 
with  Christ,  as  if  his  personality  had  blended  with  theirs, 
bringing  their  thought  and  conduct  under  a  new  law  of 
being.  St.  Paul  calls  this  "the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in 
Christ  Jesus  "  (Rom.  viii,  2). 

Thus,  as  men's  sense  of  values  grows,  the  historic  Jesus, 
who  as  a  Personage  once  living  on  earth  must  be  past  and 
outside  of  them,  becomes  in  their  idea  the  Christ  within,  a 
Messiah  increasingly  identified  with  the  highest  ideals  of 
manhood.  Every  individual  man  who  takes  Christ  as  his 
spiritual  Lord  is  thus  related  to  him  ;  Christ  is  each  man's 
truest  manhood,  and  the  community  of  those  who  believe  in 
him  are  related  to  him  as  bodily  members  are  related  to  the 
head  whence  comes  their  wisdom  and  guidance  (see  i  Cor. 
xii,  4-31).  The  church  is  accordingly  called  the  body  of 
Christ  (Eph.  i,  23  ;  iv,  12  ;  Col.  ii,  19),  under  which  figure 
it  is  regarded  as  an  organism  directed  by  his  spirit,  and 
yet  with  each  member  performing  his  free  individual  func- 
tion, contributing  to  one  unity  of  heart  and  will.  Such  is 
the  lofty  ideal  of  present  values  that  under  the  teaching 
of  such  men  as  St.  Paul  come  to  be  associated  with  the 
Christian  calling. 

3.  The  values  not  yet  realized  but  still  future.  The  New 
Testament  literature  takes  us  only  far  enough  to  give  the 
As  yet  to  be  germs  and  principles  of  a  vast  development  of 
Realized  ideas  and  their  applications  to  life  and  history. 
The  Christian  era  is  not  more  truly  a  fulfillment  than  a 
prophecy.  All  the  values  derived  from  the  past  or  secured  in 
the  present  are  but  an  "earnest "  (cf.  Eph.  i,  14),  a  guaranty  of 
greater  things  to  come.  In  thus  forecasting  the  large  future 
the  Scripture  writers  recognize  no  real  line  of  distinction 
between  the  future  beyond  death  and  the  future  of  ennobled 
manhood  here  on  the  earth.  The  conception  seems  rather 
to  be  of  one  family  in  heaven  and  earth  (cf.  Eph.  iii,  i  5  ; 

[610] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

Heb.  xii,  22,  23),  like  two  provinces  of  one  universal  common- 
wealth, raised  to  a  higher  grade  of  being  by  that  power  of 
Christ  which  is  felt  as  a  present  resurrection  (Col.  iii,  1-4), 
actuated  by  one  spirit  and  working  to  one  end.  All  this 
comes  to  be  regarded  as  the  process,  in  individual  and 
society  alike,  of  becoming  more  thoroughly  like  Christ,  a 
state  of  being  evidenced  by  increasing  ability  to  see  him 
as  he  is  (i  John  iii,  2  ;  cf.  i  Cor.  xiii,  12),  Such  is  the 
tremendous  forecast  of  the  future  to  which  Christianity 
is  committed. 

L  Literary  Gifts  and  Medium  of  Publication 

To  get  a  just  idea  of  the  peculiar  power  and  success  of 
the  New  Testament  literature,  we  need  to  take  account 
of  the  writers  from  whom  it  comes  and  of  the  literary 
medium  or  vehicle  in  which  they  expressed  themselves. 


The  Writers  and  their  Qualifications.  The  historical  por- 
tions of  the  New  Testament,  comprising  the  gospels  and 
the  Acts,  came  ultimately,  as  we  have  seen,  from  the  reports 
and  preaching  of  common  men,  whose  schooling  had  been 
the  companionship  of  Jesus  and  whose  purpose  was  to  give 
a  truthful  and  candid  statement  of  what  they  had  seen  and 
heard.  For  this  reportage  of  fact  such  men  were  the  fit  and 
sufficient  narrators ;  and  among  the  accounts  that  came 
from  their  teaching  we  have  the  work  of  one  at  least,  the 
Evangelist  Luke,  who  proved  to  be  no  mean  historian. 

For  interpreting  the  moral  and  spiritual  values  of  these 
facts,  however,  for  maintaining  these  against  perversion  and 
denial,  and  for  adjusting  the  new  materials  of  Christian  faith 
to  the  old  ideas  and  prophecies  that  had  led  up  to  them,  men 
of  a  different  type  of  culture  were  needed,  or  at  least  were 
providentially  forthcoming.  They  must  be  men  of  keen  and 
disciplined  minds,  able  to  meet  the  thought  and  learning 

[611] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

of  their  day  on  its  own  ground.  They  must  cultivate  the 
art  of  so  presenting  the  truth  that  it  would  be  both  sound 
in  reasoning  and  attractive  in  form.  This  need,  which  is 
distinctively  literary,  was  justly  felt  by  the  early  apostolic 
teachers.  St,  Peter,  more  a  man  of  vigorous  action  than 
of  skillful  speech,  urges  it  upon  his  readers.  "  Ready  always 
to  give  answer  to  every  man  that  asketh  you  a  reason  con- 
cerning the  hope  that  is  in  you  "  (i  Pet.  iii,  15),  is  his  coun- 
sel to  his  readers.  P'eeling  his  own  limitations  in  abstruse 
learning,  however,  he  refers  them  to  his  great  colleague 
St.  Paul  (2  Pet.  iii,  15,  16,  —  if  Peter's,  which  is  by  some 
doubted),  who  can  deal  masterfully  witli  the  hard  problems. 
And  St.  Paul  himself  is  concerned  not  only  with  the  weighty 
and  solid  qualities  of  discourse  but  with  the  charm  and  wit 
necessary  to  make  it  attractive.  "  Let  your  speech,"  he  says, 
'"  be  always  with  grace,  seasoned  with  salt,  that  ye  may  know 
how  ye  ought  to  answer  each  one  "  (Col.  iv,  6).  Such  were 
the  felt  needs  of  the  early  era,  when  essentially  new  values 
of  life  must  make  headway  in  a  cultured  and  civilized  world. 

The  need  was  abundantly  supplied.  As  we  consider  the 
New  Testament  writings,  their  evident  power  and  beauty, 
we  cannot  but  be  aware  that  the  early  church  had  at  its 
service  the  very  best  minds  of  its  age,  minds  qualified,  some 
in  one  way,  some  in  another,  to  present  a  rounded  and  varied 
body  of  Christian  truth. 

Preeminent  among  these  leaders  of  thought  are  to  be 
named  two  :  St.  Paul,  and  the  author  of  the  fourth  gospel. 
The  Personal  The  former,  a  man  born  in  Tarsus,  a  Greek 
Sources  university  center,  who  had  studied  Jewish  learn- 

ing under  Gamaliel,  contributes  to  the  New  Testament  the 
bulk  of  its  epistolary  literature.  The  latter,  who  calls  him- 
self "the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved,"  was  a  man  who,  be- 
fore he  wrote,  had  long  meditated  upon  the  most  intimate 
utterances  of  the  Master  and  had  tested  them  by  rare 
powers  of  intuition. 

[612] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

Besides  these  two  may  be  mentioned  St.  Peter,  to  whom 
are  ascribed  two  epistles,  and  two  brothers  of  Jesus,  namely, 
James  and  Jude.  Peter  was  the'  leader  of  the  original  com- 
pany of  apostles,  and  so  the  chief  apostolic  authority  in  the 
Jewish  branch  of  the  church.  James,  who  became  a  Chris- 
tian after  Jesus'  resurrection,  was  the  head  of  the  Jerusalem 
church,  and,  as  brother,  familiar  with  the  mind  and  tempera- 
ment of  Jesus.  He  was  the  author  of  one  epistle,  as  was 
also  Jude. 

One  epistle  alone,  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  more  like 
a  treatise  than  a  letter,  is  anonymous.  It  has  been  attributed 
to  St.  Paul,  but  the  style  does  not  allow  us  lo  maintain  this. 
■  Thus,  unlike  most  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  literature 
of  the  New  is  so  associated  with  known  writers  that  we 
can  trace  and  appreciate  in  eminent  degree  the  intimate  per- 
sonal element  in  it,  feeling  the  power  not  of  a  book  but  of 
a  living  man. 

.     II 

The  Epistle  Form  and  its  Uses.  All  the  literary  works 
of  the  New  Testament,  succeeding  to  the  gospels  and  the 
Acts,  are  in  whole  or  in  part  put  in  epistolary  form,  in 
most  cases  employing  the  conventional  phrases  in  vogue 
for  opening  and  closing.  None  of  these  letters,  it  would 
seem,  were  intended  to  be  strictly  private.  The  third 
epistle  of  John,  addressed  to  Gaius,  is  most  nearly  so,  but 
second  John,  addressed  "  to  the  elect  lady,"  probably  desig- 
nated a  whole  church  under  that  term.  St,  Paul's  letter  to 
Philemon,  though  mainly  personal,  includes  not  only  the 
individual  addressed  but  several  others  and  the  church  in 
his  house  ;  and  his  letters  to  Timothy  and  Titus,  two  prom- 
inent pastors,  are  addressed  to  them  in  their  professional 
capacity. 

The  letters  of  the  New  Testament  were  sent  mostly  to 
churches,  with  the  design  of  being  read  and  heeded  as  a 

[613] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

current  literature :  as  doctrines  or  counsels  imparted  by  an 
authoritative  teacher  at  a  time  when  religious  authority  was 
centered  not  in  a  book  nor  in  church  decrees,  but  in  a  person. 
They  represent  the  pioneer  work  of  Christian  teaching. 
Some  of  the  earlier  written  ones,  as  to  the  Thessalonians, 
the  Galatians,  and  the  Corinthians,  concern  themselves  more 
particularly  with  the  situations  or  problems  of  the  individual 
church,  making  these  a  peg,  as  it  were,  on  which  to  hang 
truths  of  permanent  and  universal  import.  Others  of  the 
letters,  however,  were  intended  as  circular  letters  (cf.  Col. 
iv,  1 6),  to  be  copied  and  distributed  to  several  churches, 
addressing  themselves  thus  to  the  common  Christian  situa- 
tion. With  the  efficient  postal  system  in  use  in  the  Roman 
Empire  such  epistolary  communication  had  become  the 
most  prevalent  means  of  publication.  Facility  of  travel  also 
promoted  the  custom  of  using  private  messengers  or  church 
helpers  and  delegates  in  the  service. 

As  we  reach  this  latest  stage  in  the  Biblical  literature  it  is 
well  to  note  the  difference,  in  tone  and  style,  between  the 
The  Familiar  ^cw  Testament  and  the  Old.  The  difference 
Tone  and  corresponds  to  the  difference  of  relation  between 
author  and  audience.  The  Old  Testament,  made 
up  of  history,  prophecy,  poetry,  law,  wisdom,  brings  its  truth 
to  nations  and  communities  ;  and  in  its  sublime  forms  and 
style  there  is  a  certain  remoteness  of  relation,  a  lack  of 
mutualness  and  sympathy.  In  the  New  Testament  the  form 
has  become  epistolar}',  the  most  personal  and  familiar  of 
literary  forms,  as  of  persons  known  individually  to  each 
other.  It  is  friendly  and  conversational.  There  is  an  absence 
of  formality  and  an  intimacy  of  assumed  relation  which  pro- 
mote good  will,  courtesy,  mutual  understanding.  On  the  part 
of  the  writer  there  is  no  posing  as  lawgiver,  prophet,  or 
sage.  Although  from  an  apostle  it  is  like  brother  to  brother 
and  friend  to  friend,  on  a  footing  of  mutual  respect  and 
equality.   Such  is  the  Christian  relation  with  which  the  literary 

[614] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

sentiment  of  the  Bible  culminates.  Its  letters  may  indeed 
rise  to  heights  of  poetic  beauty  or  emotional  fervor ;  may 
contain  profound  and  weighty  thought ;  but  the  intimate 
personal  tone  keeps  them  from  being  academic  or  having  the 
air  of  a  labored  literary  effort.  The  gospels,  too,  embody- 
ing the  conversational  talks  and  parables  of  Jesus,  are  of  the 
same  natural  feeling  and  fiber.  Thus  it  is  of  noteworthy 
significance  that  the  Bible,  which  begins  with  the  lofty  and 
didactic,  ends  with  the  personal  and  familiar. 

Note.  The  Epistolary  Fortn  and  Style.  On  the  epistolary  form  and 
style,  as  these  figure  in  the  life  of  the  early  churches,  Sir  William  M. 
Ramsay  ("  Letters  to  the  Seven  Churches,"  p.  208)  remarks  : 

"  A  philosophic  exposition  of  truth  was  apt  to  become  abstract  and 
unreal ;  the  dialogue  form,  which  the  Greeks  loved  and  some  of  the 
Christian  writers  adopted,  was  apt  to  degenerate  into  looseness  and  mere 
literary  display ;  but  the  letter,  as  already  elaborated  by  great  thinkers 
and  artists  who  were  his  predecessors,  was  determined  for  [the  Christian 
teacher]  as  the  best  medium  of  expression.'  In  this  form  .  .  .  literature, 
statesmanship,  ethics,  and  religion  met,  and  placed  the  simple  letter  on 
the  highest  level  of  practical  power.  Due  regard  to  the  practical  needs  of 
the  congregation  which  he  addressed  prevented  the  writer  of  a  letter  from 
losing  hold  on  the  hard  facts  and  serious  realities  of  life.  The  spirit  of 
the  lawgiver  raised  him  above  all  danger  of  sinking  into  the  common- 
place and  the  trivial.  Great  principles  must  be  expressed  in  the  Christian 
letter.  And  finally  it  must  have  literary  form  as  a  permanent  monument 
of  teaching  and  legislation." 

Written  with  reference  to  the  oracular  epistles  to  the  churches  of  Asia 
in  Revelation  ii  and  iii,  —  the  most  formal  letters  in  the  New  Testament. 

n.  Saint  Paul  as  Orator  and  Letter  Writer 

In  tracing  the  literature  of  fact  as  an  eventual  outgrowth 
of  the  early  apostolic  preaching,  we  have  gone  beyond  the 
dates  of  the  earlier  New  Testament  writings.  We  have  seen 
what  the  story  of  Jesus'  life  and  ministry  became  when 
a  generation  had  passed,  after  the  scattered  reminiscences 
of  eyewitnesses  were  in,  and  time  had  been  given  for  the 
facts  to  have  been  sifted,  ordered,  and  systematized. 

[615] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

We  must  now  return  to  an  earlier  period.  The  first  New 
Testament  works  to  be  written  in  finished  form  were  not 
the  synoptic  gospels  and  the  Acts,  but  the  main  body  of 
the  epistles.  And  of  these  the  earliest,  unless  we  except  the 
Epistle  of  Jarries,  were  the  great  epistles  of  St.  Paul. 


Saint  Paul  the  Man.  It  is  important  that  we  take  account 
of  this  note  of  time  and  precedence.  Of  all  the  writers 
represented  in  the  New  Testament  literature  St.  Paul  was 
by  far  the  most  vigorous,  scholarly,  and  creative.  When  we 
consider  what  he  really  accomplished  — to  make  the  Jewish 
body  of  truth  universal,  to  make  the  ideal  for  which  Jesus 
lived  and  died  a  force  vital  and  powerful  throughout  the 
lands  and  the  ages  —  we  must  put  him  in  the  forefront  of 
the  world's  great  thinkers.  Not  only  in  his  own  personal 
utterances  is  this  true,  but  during  the  period  while  the 
gospel  record  itself  was  inchoate  his  shaping  mind  did  much, 
through  writing  and  personal  evangelism,  to  set  his  creative 
stamp  upon  it.  To  him  it  fell  preeminently  to  make  the 
Christian  truth  reveal  itself  among  Jews  and  Gentiles  in  its 
true  value,  meaning,  and  proportion. 

Though  St.  Luke's  account  of  St.  Paul's  missionary  ac- 
tivities in  the  Acts  has  no  design  of  being  biographical,  nor 
is  St.  Paul  himself  in  his  epistles  concerned  with  the  per- 
sonal events  of  his  life  —  touching  upon  these,  indeed,  when 
he  has  to  do  so,  reluctantly  (cf .  2  Cor.  xi,  21  ff .)  —  yet  there 
is  no  other  personality  of  Scripture,  aside  from  that  of  Jesus, 
whom  we  know  so  well.  His  writings  are  the  perfect  reflec- 
tion of  that  Christian  character  which  became  to  him  the 
supreme  principle  of  his  life.  Besides  St.  Luke's  biograph- 
ical details  there  are  a  few  very  valuable  autobiographic 
touches  in  his  utterances  and  writings  :  notably  his  twice- 
given  account  of  his  early  life  and  conversion,  m  his  speech 
before  his  own  nation  in  Jerusalem  (Acts  xxii,  3-21),  and 

[616] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

in   his   address  •  before   King  Agrippa  and   the   procurator 

Festus  (Acts  xxvi,  1-23)  ;    his  account  of  the  beginning  of 

his  apostleship,  as  written  to  the  Galatians  who  had  doubted 

its  genuineness  (Gal.  i,  i  i-ii,  14)  ;  his  review  of  his  reasons 

aUke  for  pride  and  humihty,  as  recounted  to  the  Corinthians 

(2  Cor.  xi,   i6-xii,   10  ;   cf.  Phil,  iii,  4-7)  ;   and  his  analysis 

of  his  experience  with  his  own  sinful  nature,  as  written  for 

the   instruction  of  the  Roman  Christians  (Rom.  vii).     All 

these  show  with  what  depth  and  intensity  his  Christian  ideas, 

which  had  come  upon  his  convictions  in  one   illuminative 

moment,  had  wrought  themselves  into  his  life. 

Of  St.  Paul's  early  life  we  get  enough  from  his  own  words 

to  show  what  providential  fitness  he  had  both  by  birth  and 

education    for    his    great   mission.     A    native   of 
His 
Endowments,  Tarsus  in  Cilicia  (Acts  xxi,  39),  which  city  was  a 

Native  and     center  of  the  liberal  learning  of  his  time,  he  was 

Cultural  ^ 

of  pure  Jewish  blood  (Phil,  iii,  5),  and  proud  both 
of  his  race  and  of  his  tribe ;  was  in  religion  of  the  most  strict 
and  orthodox  Jewish  sect,  that  of  the  Pharisees  (Acts  xxvi, 
5),  and  extremely  zealous  for  their  customs  and  traditions  ; 
was  educated  from  early  youth  under  Gamaliel,  "  the  most 
learned  rabbi  of  the  age,"  in  the  capital  city  Jerusalem  (Acts 
xxii,  3).  Being  so  expert  in  all  that  the  Jews  deemed  most 
valuable  in  thought,  he  was  thus  fitted  to  deal  with  Jews  on 
their  own  ground  ;  and  living  from  birth  in  the  atmosphere 
of  Greek  ideas,  he  was  correspondingly  fitted  to  adapt  his 
teachings  to  the  Gentile  range  and  color  of  thought.  Add 
to  this  that  he  had  from  birth  the  rights  and  freedom  of 
a  Roman  citizen  (Acts  xxii,  28),  which  fact  gave  him  the 
privileges  and  immunities  that  he  needed  in  traversing  any 
part  of  the  Empire.  Of  this  advantage  he  availed  himself 
at  several  crucial  points  of  his  career  (Acts  xvi,  37-40  ; 
xxii,  25  ;  XXV,  11).  His  zeal  before  his  conversion  in  perse- 
cuting the  Christians,  for  which  he  never  ceased  to  blame 
himself,  was  after  all  a  sign  of  his  sincerity  of  purpose  and 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

so,  though  mistaken,  was  quite  consistent  with  a  good  con- 
science (Acts  xxiii,  I),  and,  as  well-directed  energy,  would 
prove  an  invaluable  trait  in  the  arduous  work  of  a  Christian 
apostle.  Thus  all  the  elements  of  his  personality,  outer  and 
inner,  were  most  fortunately  mixed  to  fit  him  for  the  dis- 
tinctive career  to  which  he  was  commissioned. 

The  conversion  of  Saul  of  Tarsus  from  Judaism  to  Chris- 
tianity is  justly  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  far-reaching 
His  Life's  Gvents  of  history.  The  story  of  it  is  narrated  no 
Turning  fewer  than  three  times  (Acts  ix,  xxii,  xxvi)  :  once 
in  St.  Luke's  own  historical-  style,  and  twice  in 
St.  fluke's  reports  of  St.  Paul's  speeches.  The  three  accounts 
agree  in  essentials,  the  slight  differences  being  due  to  dif- 
ferent occasions  and  purposes  of  the  recounting. 

The  occasion  of  Saul's  sudden  conversion  resolves  itself 
virtually  into  the  simple  fact  that  he  saw  the  Christ  as  he  is 
and  identified  him  with  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  This  occurred 
in  a  vision  that  he  had  on  the  way  to  Damascus,  while  he 
was  on  a  fanatical  errand  of  persecution  ;  and  the  Being  he 
saw  was  the  glorified  Jesus,  appearing  several  years  after  his 
resurrection  and  identifying  himself  as  the  One  whom  Saul 
was  persecuting.  The  apostle  never  doubted  that  this  was 
as  real  and  veritable  an  interview  as  if  Jesus  were  still  in 
the  flesh  ;  and  all  his  life  thereafter  was  spent  in  simple 
obedience  to  the  direction  he  then  obtained.  To  him  it  was 
a  truly  objective  experience,  like  that  of  the  other  apostles. 

Yet  not  all  objective.  In  spite  of  Saul's  mistaken  oppo- 
sition up  to  that  time,  there  was  in  him  a  subjective  readi- 
ness to  respond  to  Christ  when  he  saw  him  in  the  true  light. 
His  own  interpretation  of  the  event  was  that  at  the  fitting 
time  God  was  pleased  to  reveal  His  Son  ///  him  (Gal.  i,  i6). 
From  that  time  forth  his  ideal  was  to  realize  in  word  and 
work  the  same  spirit  of  life  that  had  actuated  Jesus  in  his 
ministry,  and  especially  in  his  sacrificial  death  as  the  way 
to  resurrection  (Phil,  iii,  lo,  ii).    The  sense  of  this  relation 

[6i8] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

to  Christ  became  in  time  so  intimate  that  it  was  hke  an 
interfusion  of  a  greater  personahty  with  his;  for  him,  "to 
live,"  he  said,  "was  Christ"  (Phil,  i,  21). 

This  consciousness  of  the  deep  meaning  of  his  and  the 
Christian  life,  however,  did  not  come  to  Saul  at  once  on 
his  conversion.  He  must  take  time  for  adjustment  to  his 
new  spiritual  condition  and  ideal.  This  must  be  done  in 
solitude  and  self-examination.  Accordingly,  he  spent  the  first 
three  years  after  his  conversion  in  Arabia  (Gal,  i,  17,  18), 
doubtless  in  searching  study  and  meditation.  Then,  going 
up  to  Jerusalem,  he  made  a  fortnight's  visit  to  St.  Peter 
and  saw  St.  James  the  Lord's  brother  (Gal.  i,  18-19).  From 
these  men  he  doubtless  got  such  information  about  Jesus' 
earthly  life  as  he  would  need  for  the  factual  basis  of  his  own 
teaching.  What  he  habitually  preached,  however,  was  rather 
the  values  than  the  external  facts  of  Jesus'  ministry  (cf .  2  Cor. 
V,  16)  ;  which  values  he  deduced  from  the  Christ  he  had 
seen  in  vision,  who  had  become  the  risen  Lord  and  Brother 
of  every  man. 

In  this  peculiar  experience  of  St.  Paul  (for  such  his  name 
became  after  he  began  preaching,  cf .  Acts  xiii,  9)  we  discern 
two  elements  of  special  fitness,  superior  to  what  we  find  in 
the  older  apostles,  for  the  distinctive  literary  work  that  fell 
to  him  to  do.  First,  his  conversion  was  not  a  reversal  of  his 
life's  ideas  but  an  adjustment  and  concentration,  in  which 
he  continued  to  cherish  all  the  permanent  values  of  Judaism 
and  could  see  their  consummation  and  fulfillment.  Secondly, 
even  by  the  fact  that  he  had  not  been  a  personal  companion 
of  Jesus  he  cftuld  the  better  interpret  the  idealism  of  the 
Christ  to  men  of  every  nation  who  themselves  must  receive 
him  rather  by  faith  than  by  sight.  He  himself,  dealing 
with  Gentiles  of  every  stripe,  was  an  able  exponent  of  the 
same  faith. 


[619] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

II 

St.  Paul  the  Orator.  In  thinking  of  St.  Paul  as  the  writer 
of  the  letters  that  bear  his  name,  we  are  too  apt  to  ignore 
the  main  literary  activity  to  which  he  gave  his  life.  After 
his  conversion,  as  soon  as  he  became  fully  aware  of  "  that 
.for  which  he  was  laid  hold  of  by  Christ  Jesus  "  (Phil,  iii,  12), 
he  became  a  traveling  preacher  and  teacher  ;  making  it  his 
life's  business  to  interest  men  in  his  Christian  message,  to 
plant  and  organize  churches,  and  to  exercise  a  founder's  care 
over  them  until  they  were  well  enough  manned  and  indoc- 
trinated to  maintain  themselves.  In  this  work  he  showed  a 
masterly  generalship  by  choosing  important  strategic  points 
or  centers  of  influence  :  residing  for  various  periods  of  time, 
sometimes  amounting  to  years,  and  later  repeating  his  visits, 
in  such  cities  as  Antioch,  Philippi,  Thessalonica,  Corinth,  and 
Ephesus  ;  not  to  omit  Csesarea  and  Rome,  in  both  of  which 
cities  he,  though  a  prisoner,  had  much  freedom  of  intercourse 
with  the  world  and  earned  the  recognition  accorded  to  a  man 
of  intellectual  and  spiritual  power  (cf.  Acts  xxiv,  25,  26; 
xxviii,  30,  31).  In  all  this  extraordinarily  active  life  he  made 
his  way  and  achieved  success  by  public  speaking,  that  is,  as  a 
powerful  and  persuasive  orator. 

St.  Paul  himself,  it  would  seem,  set  no  great  store  either  by 
the  impressiveness  of  his  personal  presence  (cf,  2  Cor,  x,  10) 
His  Manner  or  by  the  cloqucncc  of  his  public  speech  (cf,  i  Cor, 
of  Speaking  jj^  1,4).  He  was  inclined  rather  to  attribute  the 
undeniably  marvelous  effects  of  his  preaching  to  the  intrin- 
sic power  of  his  theme.  But  there  are  gdbd  reasons  for 
a  less  deprecatory  estimate.  To  quote  from  the  Reverend 
Maurice  Jones  :  "If  the  power  to  produce  striking  effects, 
and  a  marvelous  facility  of  adapting  himself  to  every  class 
of  hearer  and  to  every  variety  of  conditions,  be  the  marks 
of  a  true  orator,  we  are  bound  to  confess  that  the  Apostle 
possessed  them  in  no  small  degree,  .  .  .    The  effect  of  his 

[620] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

first  recorded  sermon  at  Antioch  in  Pisidia,  which  brought 
the  whole  city  to  Hsten  to  him  on  the  following  Sabbath 
(Acts  xiii,  44)  ;  the  burning  eloquence  which  filled  the 
coQscience-stricken  Felix  with  fear  and  awe  (Acts  xxiv,  25)  ; 
the  impassioned  oratory  which  moved  Festus  to  exclaim  that 
he  was  mad  (Acts  xxvi,  24)  ;  the  persuasiveness  which  fasci- 
nated and  kept  quiet  a  howling  mob  of  Jews  thirsting  for 
his  life  (Acts  xxii,  2), — all  these  tell  the  same  tale,  and 
assure  us  that  among  the  many  and  outstanding  gifts  pos- 
sessed by  the  Apostle,  that  of  speech  was  not  the  least. 
High  Rpman  officials,  Jewish  kings,  crowds  of  heathen, 
whether  among  the  dilettanti  of  Athens  or  the  peasants  of 
Lystra,  all  acknowledge  the  power  of  that  magic  voice.  .  .  . 
To  the  unlettered  crowd  at  Lystra  there  was  but  one  name 
which  could  do  justice  to  the  brilliancy  of  his  eloquence,  that 
of  Mercury,  the  herald  of  the  gods  "  ^  (Acts  xiv,  12). 

The  reports  of  St.  Paul's  public  addresses  are  all  from  the 
pen  of  St.  Luke,  the  writer  of  the  Acts,  who  was  for  several 
Notes  of  years  the  intimate  friend  and  traveling  companion 
Speeches  .  of  the  apostle.  Some  of  these  speeches,  it  is  not 
to  be  doubted,  he  himself  heard.  For  others  he 
must  depend  on  report,  or  perhaps  procure  an  account  of 
them  from  the  apostle  himself.  As  reported  to  us  they  are 
all  brief,  and  doubtless  comprise  in  each  case  only  the  gist 
or  main  course  of  what  was  said  ;  and  much  of  the  wealth 
of  color,  illustration,  and  impassioned  appeal  can  be  only 
meagerly  reproduced.  Enough  is  preserved,  however,  to  show 
the  wonderful  tact  with  which  the  apostle  adapted  himself 
to  every  audience  and  occasion  ;  the  variety  of  appeal  that 
he  made  to  very  different  classes  of  people  ;  yet  withal  the 
absolute  singleness  and  sincerity  of  purpose  which  drove  him 
in  each  case  straight  to  his  point,  with  oratorical  skill  yet 
quite  without  the  tricks  or  sophistry  of  the  rhetorician.  His 
absorbing  sense  of  the  power  of  his  theme  (cf.  i  Cor.  ix,  16) 

1  Jones,  "  St.  Paul  the  Orator,"  p.  i. 

[621] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

is  what  gives  power,  unity,  and  eloquence  to  all  his  work. 
He  himself  describes  this  in  i  Cor.  ix,  19-27,  illustrating 
his  singleness  of  aim  by  a  figure  taken  from  athletics  :  "I 
therefore  so  run  as  not  uncertainly  ;  so  fight  I,  as  not  beating 
the  air." 

Note.  List  of  St.  PmiTs  Speeches.  Of  St.  Paul's  reported  speeches, 
"  six  are  longer  and  more  noteworthy  than  the  rest "' ;  ^  and  they  present 
such  a  variety  of  treatment  and  occasion  that  we  naturally  conclude  them 
to  have  been  selected  by  St.  Luke  as  broadly  typical  of  the  main  aspects 
of  his  work.    They  are  : 

1.  The  speech  at  Antioch  in  Pisidia,  Acts  xiii,  given  before  an  audi- 
ence of  his  own  nation,  in  a  synagogue.  • 

2.  The  speech  at  Athens,  Acts  xvii,  given  before  an  audience  of 
Greek  philosophers. 

3.  The  speech  at  Miletus,  Acts  xx,  given  as  a  farewell  address  to  a 
Christian  audience. 

4.  The  speech  at  Jerusalem,  Acts  xxii,  given  to  a  Jewish  hostile  mob ; 
an  apologia  pro  vita  sua. 

5.  The  speech  before  Felix,  Acts  xxiv,  given  as  a  defense  before  a 
Roman  tribunal. 

6.  The  speech  before  King  Agrippa,  Acts  xxvi,  given  on  an  occasion 
of  great  pomp  before  a  Jewish  king  and  a  Roman  procurator. 

To  these  main  addresses  may  be  added :  brief  notes  of  speeches  to 
an  unlettered  crowd  at  Lystra  (Acts  xiv,  15-17);  to  the  Sanhedrim  in 
Jerusalem  (Acts  xxiii,  1-6);  and  to  the  Jews  at  Rome,  soon  after  his 
arrival  there  as  a  prisoner  (Acts  xxviii,  17-28). 

Thus,  not  only  in  variety  of  audience  and  occasion  as  represented  in 
St.  Luke's  reports,  but  "  we  have  records  of  his  addresses  at  the  great 
centres  of  imperial  and  provincial  life.  .  .  .  The  selection  of  speeches, 
although  exceedingly  limited  in  quantity,  is  by  the  variety  and  compre- 
hensiveness of  its  contents,  of  the  greatest  importance,  and  redounds, 
in  no  small  degree,,  to  the  credit  of  the  author  of  the  Acts  as  a  historian 
of  high  rank  "  (Jones,  p.  5). 

In  estimating  St.  Paul's  speeches  we  must  bear  in  mind 
that  we  do  not  have  them  immediately  from  him,  but  from 
St.  Luke,  who  in  reporting"  them  may  supposably  have  im- 
pressed something  of  his  own  style  upon  them.     Wc  have 

^  For  this  list  and  remarks  thereon,  see  Gardiner,  in  "  Cambridge  Biblical 
Essays,"  and  Jones, '"  St.  Paul  the  Orator." 

[622] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

to  bear  in  mind  also  the  conventional  method  of  ancient 
historians,  whose  custom  was  to  compose  speeches  and  put 
Bearing  on  them  in  the  mouths  of  their  characters.  St.  Luke's 
the  Epistles  dose  conversance  with  St.  Paul's  mind,  however, 
would  remove  the  necessity  of  much  invention  of  speeches  ; 
besides,  he  was  the  actual  hearer  of  some  of  them. 

Beyond  this,  however,  there  is  a  close  analogy  between 
the  speeches  and  the  epistle.  Not  only  are  the  lines  of 
thought  as  much  alike  as  the  variety  of  occasion  would  per- 
mit, but  the  epistles  themselves,  in  the  glow  and  impetuosity 
of  their  style,  in  the  close  grip,  as  it  were,  of  a  man  with  an 
audience,  and  in  their  intimate  personal  tone,  are  like  public 
speech  reduced  to  writing.  In  the  direct  and  incisive  way  of 
marshaling  his  thoughts,  too,  St.  Paul's  mind  was  eminently 
oratorical.  The  chosen  occasion  of  his  epistles  was  always 
like  that  of  a  pastor  conversing  with  his  people.  In  such  a 
literary  medium  it  was,  accordingly,  familiar  yet  impassioned, 
that  he  gave  his  great  Christian  message  to  the  ages. 

Ill 

Letters  of  the  Active  Missionary.  If  we  would  trace  the 
development  of  St.  Paul's  thought  through  his  epistles,  we 
must  take  them  not  in  the  order  in  which  they  occur  in  the 
New  Testament  but  in  that  which  a  careful  study  of  their 
thought  and  occasion  reveals  as  chronological.  This  order 
can  be  ascertained  without  much  uncertainty,  except  in  the 
relative  order  of  one  or  two  of  the  shorter  ones. 

The  development  of  thought  which  this  study  reveals 
may  be  traced  in  the  large  in  two  stages.  These  may  be 
defined  somehow  thus  :  The  gospel  which  St.  Paul  has  in 
charge  is  indeed  universal,  not  to  be  monopolized  by  any 
race  or  class  (cf.  Rom.  i,  14,  16).  But  it  has  its  roots  in 
Jewish  ways  of  thinking,  inherited  from  an  ancient  history 
and  literature,  and  in  its  branches  in  ways  of  thinking  which 
Gentiles  cannot  understand  without  first  being  educated  in 

[623] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Jewish  presuppositions.  Hence  the  great  effort  of  St.  Paul's 
first  period,  while  the  letters  he  wrote  were  those  of  the 
active  missionary,  was  so  to  reckon  with  the  roots  of  his 
belief,  his  inherited  Jewish  ideas,  as  to  retain  all  their  essen- 
tial values  yet  translate  them,  so  to  say,  into  the  Gentile  or 
rather  the  universal  currency  of  thinking. 

The  epistles  of  St.  Paul's  first  period  comprise  those 
which  he  wrote  while  he  was  a  busy  traveling  evangelist, 
The  Epistles  Planting  new  churches  and  watching  over  those 
of  the  First  already  planted.  The  period  ends  with  his  arrest 
^™*^  at  Jerusalem  and  the  beginning  of  his  two  years' 

imprisonment  in  Caesarea  (Acts  xxiii,  35  ;  xxiv,  27). 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  these  were  all  the  letters  he 
wrote.  From  the  fact  that  in  one  letter  he  warns  his  readers 
against  forgeries  (2  Thess.  ii,  2)  and  tells  them  how  to  iden- 
tify a  genuine  letter  of  his  (2  Thess.  iii,  17),  it  would  seem 
that  his  correspondence  was  extensive  enough  to  be  prized. 
In  another  letter  he  refers  to  an  epistle  now  lost  (1  Cor.  v,  9). 
The  letters  that  we  have  are  doubtless  those  that  were  felt 
to  be  of  cardinal  importance  for  the  instruction  of  the 
churches.  They  rise,  however,  out  of  concrete  situations 
and  adapt  themselves  to  particular  emergencies ;  they  are 
applications  of  Christian  wisdom  and  exposition  to  the 
religious  and  social  affairs  of  life. 

In  their  most  probable  chronological  order,  these  epistles 
of  the  first  period  are  :  ^ 

First  Thessalonians,  written  from  Corinth  a.  d.  52  to  a  newly 
established  church  (Robertson,  p.  167).  It  recognizes  essentially 
the  primitive  Christian  doctrine. 

Second  Thessalonians,  written  soon  after,  partly  to  correct 
certain  misconceptions  of  the  teaching  of  the  first  letter. 

First  Corinthians,  written  from  Ephesus  a.  D.  57  (or  56),  to 
discuss   some  grave   problems  which  had  risen  in  the  church  at 

1  The  order  and  the  dates  here  given  follow  Robertson.  "  Epochs  in  the 
Life  of  Paul"  (New  York,  1909). 

[624] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

Corinth.  It  contains  some  of  the  main  elements  of  St.  Paul's 
gospel,  notably  about  the  resurrection  and  about  the  specific  gifts 
of  the  Spirit  (Robertson,  p.  189). 

Second  Corinthians^  written  from  Ephesus  perhaps  a  year  or  two 
after ;  an  intensely  personal  letter,  written  partly  to  mitigate  the 
severity  of  an  intervening  letter  now  lost  (2  Cor.  ii,  4),  and  partly 
to  prepare  the  readers'  minds  for  a  contemplated  visit  to  them,  in 
which  he  may  have  to  say  sharp  things  (xii,  14;  xiii,  10).  It 
contains  some  remarkable  accounts  of  Paul's  personal  experiences 
both  of  hardship  (xi,  21-33)  ^^^  of  unusual  spiritual  revelations 
(xii,  i-io). 

Galatians,  written  at  some  time  in  these  active  years,  but 
giving  no  certain  clue  of  time  or  place,  with  the  object  to  main- 
tain his  apostolic  authority  and  the  truth  of  his  message,  to  a 
church  which  under  the  influence  of  Judaizing  meddlers  is  in 
danger  of  deserting  the  freedom  and  purity  of  its  faith.  It  is 
perhaps  the  most  impassioned  of  St.  Paul's  epistles. 

Romafis,  written  from  Ephesus  a. d.  57  (Robertson,  p.  206): 
the  first  of  his  epistles  written  to  a  church  which  he  had  not  estab- 
lished nor  seen,  though  it  announces  his  purpose  of  visiting  them 
soon  (xv,  24).  It  is  written  in  his  matured  consciousness  of  being 
the  recognized  teacher  and  leader  of  all  the  Gentile  churches,  and 
contains  in  the  most  systematic  form  the  doctrinal  substance  of 
his  gospel.  In  this  respect  it  is  as  truly  a  treatise  as  an  epistle, 
though  not  expressed  in  such  rigid  and  academic  terms  as  one 
associates  with  a  treatise.  It  is  from  a  somewhat  narrow  inter- 
pretation of  Romans,  especially,  that  the  one-sided  Puritan  theology 
has  been  deduced ;  no  blame,  however,  to  the  epistle  itself,  only 
to  myopic  views  of  it. 

To  St.  Paul,  as  a  thoroughly  trained  scholar,  all  the  lines 
of  Jewish  thought  and  ideal  met  and  culminated  in  his  gos- 
Two  Lines  of  P^^  '"'^  Jesus  Christ.  We  cannot  touch  upon  these 
Transformed  here  with  any  fullness  of  treatment.  Two  main 
jewis  eas  |jj^^g  j^^y  y^^  noted,  however,  as  typical  of  the 
way  in  which  the  ancient  Jewish  thought  was  transformed, 
through  the  apostle's  mind,  into  a  living  and  working 
principle  of  life. 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

I.  "'  Because  of  the  hope  of  Israel  I  am  bound  with  this 
chain  "  (Acts  xxviii,  20),  St.  Paul  said  to  the  chief  person- 
ages of  his  nation  whom  he  met  when  as  a  prisoner  he 
arrived  at  Rome.  From  his  Judaistic  consciousness  he  in- 
herited in  pure  intensity  what  has  been  called  "  the  habitual 
expectancy  of  the  Jewish  race."  Beyond  all  other  religions 
theirs  had  been  a  prophetic  religion.  They  looked  forward 
confidently  to  a  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  to  a  Messiah  as 
universal  king.  But  as  Jews  their  idea  had  been  ethnic  and 
exclusive  :  they  deemed  that  this  kingdom  would  mean  their 
dominance  of  the  nations,  and  that  their  Messiah,  while 
their  race's  king,  would  be  the  other  nations'  despot.  The 
Christians  had  learned  more  hospitable  and  fraternal  things. 
In  becoming  a  Christian  St.  Paul  merely  took  up  this  expec- 
tation as  it  was  in  process  of  enlargement  in  the  new  Chris- 
tian sect,  and  became  the  principal  factor  in  translating  it 
into  universal  terms.  He  joined  with  that  sect  (cf.  Acts  xxiv, 
14-16)  in  recognizing  that  the  candidate  for  Messiahship, 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  had  already  completed  his  preliminary 
ministry,  and  in  his  death  and  resurrection  had  revealed  the 
lines  on  which  the  kingdom  of  heaven  was  to  be  perfected 
among  men.  Jesus  Christ  reigned  even  now  as  unseen  Lord 
of  his  faitjiful  subjects,  Jews  and  Greeks  alike  ;  he  was  "  the 
power  of  God  and  the  wisdom  of  God  "  (i  Cor.  i,  24)  ;  his 
will  and  spirit  were  the  principle  of  a  new  life  in  all  who 
believed  ;  and  he  was  destined  to  come  again  and  gather  his 
subjects  to  himself. 

It  was  in  this  form  that  the  Jewish  apocalyptic  idea  of 
the  coming  judgment  and  the  end  of  the  age  presented  itself 
to  the  primitive  Christians.  St.  Paul  entered  heartily  into 
the  idea,  emphasizing  it  in  his  preaching  and  writing  (i  Thess. 
iv,  13-17).  In  his  earliest  extant  epistle  —  First  Thessalo- 
nians  —  the  coming  of  Christ  as  fully  established  Messiah 
is  regarded  as  very  near,  as  due,  indeed,  in  that  generation, 
though   no  definite  date  could   be   set  for  it.    In   Second 

[626] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

Thessalonians  he  corrects  some  errors  of  faith  and  conduct 
which  this  expectation  had  engendered,  and  virtually  postpones 
the  parousia  until  first  the  "man  of  sin"  (2  Thess.  ii,  2-4), 
typifying  the  worldly  power  of  evil  and  denial,  is  met  and 
vanquished.  The  older  Jewish  imagery  still  clung  to  his 
mind,  however ;  and  in  the  next  epistle.  First  Corinthians, 
the  coming  parousia  is  conceived  in  spectacular  terms  (i  Cor. 
XV,  51,  52),  with  sound  of  trumpet  and  sudden  transforma- 
tion of  bodily  conditions  ;  still  regarded,  too,  as  due  in  that 
generation.  It  takes  time  to  translate  one's  imagination 
from  apocalyptic  to  actual. 

This  apocalyptic  imagery,  however,  was  a  feature  of  the 
time  and  of  racial  imagination.  As  it  came  more  and  more 
in  contact  with  the  more  abstract  and  logical  Gentile  con- 
ceptions it  was  destined  to  fall  away,  or  rather  to  pass  from 
the  visual  to  the  spiritual,  and  from  an  expectation  to  a 
present  realized  condition.  There  are  not  wanting  indica- 
tions that  St.  Paul  himself  gradually  relinquished  it,  while 
still  retaining  all  its  permanent  values  for  humanity  in 
general. 

2.  From  his  Jewish  race  and  religion  St.  Paul  inherited 
what  may  be  called  a  passion  for  perfection,  such  as  .  no 
other  religious  ideal  could  show.  It  was  this  passion  which 
underlay  the  undeniably  good  elements  of  Pharisaism.  As 
a  Pharisee  he  had  been  exceedingly  zealous  to  keep  the 
Mosaic  law  perfectly  ;  as  a  Pharisee,  too,  he  had  longed  so 
to  live  as  to  attain  to  the  resurrection  from  the  dead  (cf.  Acts 
xxiii,  6).  But  with  his  conversion  to  Christianity  these  ideals, 
though  still  equally  charged  with  passion,  underwent  a  rapid 
and  radical  transformation.  As  for  the  law,  which  he  had 
come  to  regard  not  as  mere  Mosaic  precept  but  as  the  es- 
sential law  of  his  being,  he  became  aware  that  he  could 
not  keep  it ;  that  it  was  too  absolute  for  any  man  to  keep, 
there  being  a  law  of  sin  in  his  members  like  a  dead  weight 
dragging  him  down.     He  describes  this  in   the  celebrated 

[627] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

passage,  Romans  vii,  in  which  the  bondage  of  the  natural 
man  is  owned  and  deplored.  But  over  against  this  failure 
he  sets  his  Christian  resource  :  a  new  energy  of  life  within, 
which  he  calls  '"  the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  " 
(Rom.  viii,  2),  and  in  its  practical  beneficence  "  the  law  of 
Christ"  (Gal.  vi,  2),  This  law,  in  its  relation  to  conduct,  he 
identifies  with  the  spirit  of  love,  saying,  "  Love  worketh  no 
ill  to  his  neighbor ;  love  therefore  is  the  fulfilment  of  the 
law  "  (Rom.  xiii,  10). 

The  sense  of  ""  freedom  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death  " 
thus  engendered  transforms  all  his  Jewish  heritage  of  austere 
law  and  guilty  conscience  into  the  sense  of  a  new  power  and 
peace  in  his  personality,  which  he  identifies  with  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and  this,  being  the  spirit  of  Christ, 
carries  with  it  the  guaranty  of  resurrection  through  the  might 
of  Him  who  rose  again.  Thus  his  severest  Pharisaic  ideals 
are  at  once  corrected  and  more  than  realized.  All  the  epistles 
of  this  period  are  occupied  with  various  phases,  expressed 
in  great  vigor  and  enthusiasm  of  language,  of  this  transforma- 
tion of  Jewish  ideas,  through  Christianity,  into  the  universal 
idiom  for  mankind. 

IV 

Letters  of  the  Roman  Prisoner.  Until  by  imprisonment 
St.  Paul  was  laid  aside  from  the  active  work  of  a  traveling 
evangelist  and  organizer,  he  seems  to  have  had  mainly  in 
mind  the  adjustment  of  ideas  inherited  from  Jewish  sources 
to  the  uses  of  the  Christian  world  in  general.  The  Epistle 
to  the  Romans,  the  latest  written  letter  of  the  first  period,  is 
the  one  in  which  this  adjustment  is  most  fully  made. 

In  the  letters  written  from  his  prison  in  Rome,  however, 
we  discern  a  new  background  for  his  instruction.  He  accom- 
modates himself  in  a  marked  degree  to  the  thought  native 
to  the  Gentiles  themselves;  which  thought  contains  elements 
derived  from  Greek  philosophy.  Oriental  mysticism,  and  the 

[628] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

various  conceptions  developed  among  the  heterogeneous  popu- 
lations of  Asia  Minor.  Here  again  he  is  hospitable  and 
tolerant ;  we  have  seen  his  attitude  in  his  speech  at  Athens 
(Acts  xvii,  22-31).  His  object  is  not  to  introduce  an  entirely 
alien  way  of  thinking  but  to  direct  whatever  is  good  to  a 
lucid  Christian  solution,  and  to  correct  the  errors  and  cor- 
ruptions that  inhere  in  the  various  systems.  Thus  we  may 
regard  his  work  in  this  period  as  the  Christianizing  of  the 
world's  inherited  thinking,  especially  of  that  thinking  which 
inheres  with  life  and  conduct. 

St.  Paul's  removal  from  an  active  life  of  travel  and 
preaching  began  with  his  arrest  in  Jerusalem  ;  whence  he 
The  Epistles  ^^^  taken  to  Caesarea,  the  residence  of  the  procu- 
of  the  Second  rator,  and  there  detained  two  years  awaiting  trial 
(Acts  xxiv,  27).  On  appealing  to  Caesar  he  was 
taken  to  Rome,  where  again  he  was  a  prisoner  for  two  whole 
years  before  his  case  came  before  the  Emperor's  court  (Acts 
xxviii,  30).  In  both  places  his  imprisonment  was  a  com- 
paratively easy  one  (cf.  Acts  xxiv,  23;  xxviii,  30,  31),  in 
which  he  could  be  ^attended  by  friends,  and  through  them 
could  communicate  with  the  various  churches  under  his  care. 

It  was  from  his  Roman  imprisonment  that  the  most 
important  of  these  later  epistles  were  written.  The  account 
of  his  career  as  given  in  the  Acts  ends  with  this  first  Roman 
residence,  and  for  further  information  about  him  we  have 
to  rely  on  statements  and  allusions  in  the  epistles  themselves. 
When  at  length  his  case  came  to  trial  he  was  acquitted, 
and  had  then  a  period  of  liberty,  during  which  he  made 
some  visits  among  the  Macedonian  and  perhaps  the  Asian 
churches.  Then  came  a  second  arrest  and  imprisonment  in 
Rome,  followed  by  his  martyrdom,  concerning  which  latter 
we  have  only  tradition  of  uncertain  authority  to  guide  us. 
A  group  of  later  epistles,  addressed  not  to  churches  but 
to  individuals,  dates  from  this  last  period  of  release  and  the 
last  imprisonment. 

[629] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

The  following  are  the  epistles  of  St.  Paul's  prison  period  : 

PhiHppia/is,  written  to  the  church  that  has  had  the  friendliest 
relations  with  him,  at  a  time  when  he  finds  that  even  in  prison  his 
efforts  to  witness  to  the  truth  of  Christ  are  working  to  the  further- 
ance of  the  good  cause  (Phil,  i,  1 2-24).  Full  of  joy  and  good  cheer, 
it  is  perhaps  the  most  charming  of  St.  Paul's  epistles. 

Colossians,  written  to  correct  an  incipient  heresy  which  is  creep- 
ing into  the  church  at  Colosse :  a  disturbing  philosophy  and  mys- 
ticism which  is  confusing  the  faith  of  the  churches  and  tending  to 
destroy  their  unity  and  equality  in  Christ. 

Philemon,  a  letter  intrusted  for  delivery  to  a  runaway  slave, 
Onesimus,  whom  St.  Paul  has  met  and  converted,  and  is  now 
sending  back  to  his  owner  in  Colosse,  recommending  his  reinstate- 
ment as  no  longer  a  menial  but  a  Christian  brother  (cf.  Col.  iv,  9). 
The  letter  breathes  a  rare  grace  of  the  Christian  spirit  and  the 
nobility  of  the  true  gentleman. 

Ephesians,  sent  as  a  circular  letter  to  the  churches  of  the  region 
about  Colosse,  and  dealing  in  a  less  controversial  way  with  much 
the  same  tendencies  noted  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians.  The 
words  "  in  Ephesus "  are  missing  from  the  address  in  the  two 
most  ancient  manuscripts  (^Codex  Sinaiticus  and  Codex  Vdticanus) ; 
and  many  suppose  that  it  was  so  left  that 'the  name  of  the  par- 
ticular church  might  be  copied  in,  and  that  thus  the  letter  might 
be  transcribed  and  sent  on  or  exchanged ;  as  is,  indeed,  suggested 
in  Col.  iv,  16,  where  a  letter  to  the  Laodiceans,  by  some  identified 
with  this  epistle,  is  mentioned. 

First  Timothy  and  Titus,  written  during  St.  Paul's  period  of 
release,  to  counsel  and  encourage  the  persons  named,  who  were 
pastors  in  Ephesus  and  Crete  respectively,  and  the  apostle's 
most  beloved  helpers.  Full  of  wise  counsel  both  personal  and 
communal. 

Second  Timothy,  written  from  his  last  imprisonment,  when  the 
aged  apostle,  resigned  and  peaceful,  feels  that  his  life  of  strenuous 
activity  is  over  and  that  death  is  near.  The  letter  is  full  of  practical 
wisdom  and  good  sense. 

It  is  to  the  epistles  to  the  Colossians  and  the  Ephesians, 
especially,  that  we  must  look  for  St.  Paul's  most  matured 

[630] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

and   finished  Christian   thinking.    They  were  written   at  a 

time  when  his  gospel  had  been  introduced  into  all  the  world 

(Col.  i,  6,  23)  as  a  working  and  vitalizing  power. 
Two  Lines        1.,         .'      '      ^'  ,  ,  °  f        r 

of  Matured     The  time  would  seem  to  have  come,  thereiore, 
Christian        f^j-  ^  f^j^^j  ^^^^  rounded  summary  of  this  message 

Thought  .  ,  .,,■,  ^-1  ,T  1 

of  truth,  suited  alike  to  Gentiles  and  Jews,  and 
in  forms  which  should  utilize  Greek  habits  of  thought  as 
well  as  Jewish. 

The  occasion  of  these  letters  was  the  report  of  a  tendency 
in  the  church  at  Colosse  to  desert  the  simplicity  of  their 
faith  and  become  involved  in  the  confused  and  mystic  phi- 
losophies of  which  Asia  Minor  was  full.  With  his  letter  to 
this  church  he  sent  also  another  letter  intended  for  all  the 
churches  of  the  region,  and  setting  forth  the  same  ideas 
in  rather  more  systematic  and  less  controversial  terms  —  the 
letter  which  we  now  know  as  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians.^ 
Both  letters  are  rather  more  involved  and  difificult  in  style 
than  his  earlier  ones,  owing  partly  to  the  more  abstruse  phi- 
losophies which  it  was  his  aim  to  correct  and  simplify,  and 
partly  to  the  apostle's  vehemence  in  setting  forth  a  vividly 
realized  truth.  Both  letters  reveal,  too,  the  supreme  subject 
of  St.  Paul's  meditation  during  this  period  of  enforced  leisure. 
It  was  the  person  of  Christ :  his  unique  rank  in  creation 
(cf.  Col.  i,  15,  16)  and  his  unique  value  for  the  believer's 
life ;  or,  as  he  expresses  the  whole  idea,  "  the  unsearchable 
riches  of  Christ"  (Eph.  iii,  8).  In  the  exposition  of  this 
subject  he  reaches  a  height  far  beyond  what  his  Jewish 
thinking  has  given  him  data  for. 

In  two  main  lines  we  may  trace  this  matter  of  St.  Paul's 
later  thinking  and  its  advance  on  his  earlier. 

I.  We  have  seen  how,  in  pursuance  of  the  Jewish  expecta- 
tion of  a  coming  kingdom  and  world-judgment,  he  viewed 
Jesus  as  the  risen  and  ascended  Lord  under  whose  spiritual 
direction  men  were  now  living,  in  the  belief  that  he  would 
^  See  note  on  Ephesians,  p.  630. 
[631] 


GUIDEBOOK  'JO  BIBLICAL  LIJERATURE 

soon  come  again  in  person  as  the  fully  enthroned  Messiah. 
This  is  essentially  the  view  of  the  primitive  church,  when 
it  first  started  as  a  Jewish  sect.  St.  Paul's  later  thought  of 
Christ,  however,  is  of  a  Being  far  more  intimately  related 
to  creation  and  manhood  ;  a  Being  described  as  "  the  first- 
born of  all  creation"  (Col,  i,  15),  through  whom  all  things 
are  created,  to  whom  all  ranks  of  being  owe  their  life,  and 
in  whom  dwells  all  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  bodily 
(Col.  ii,  9).  Of  all  things  in  heaven  and  earth  Christ  is  the 
Head  and  Chief.  This  the  apostle  squarely  maintains,  going 
so  far,  indeed,  as  to  call  him  "  the  image  of  the  invisible 
God"   (Col.  i,    15),  without  actually  calling  him   Deity. 

He  is  led  to  declare  this  view  by  the  fact  that  the  churches 
to  whom  he  is  writing  are  speculating  on  an  elaborate  phi- 
losophy of  creation  in  which  Christ  is  virtually  lost  in  a  host 
of  spiritual  beings,  rank  over  rank,  between  man  and  God. 
The  word  "  fullness  "  {plcroma),  which  he  uses  of  Christ,  is 
one  of  the  current  terms  of  this  philosophy,  which  he  thus  de- 
fines and  adapts.  He  is  encountering  the  earlier  stage  of  a 
philosophy  which  later  caused  much  confusion  in  the  church 
under  the  name  of  gnosticism.  St.  Paul's  object  in  thus 
dealing  with  it  is  not  so  much  to  deny  or  oppose  it  as  so 
to  simplify  the  terms  of  the  Christian  faith  that  men's  specu- 
lations may  not  dissipate  it  in  a  mystic  cloudland  of  theory. 
He  warns  the  Colossians  against  worshiping  a  hierarchy  of 
angels  (Col.  ii,  18),  without  holding  the  Head  of  all,  who 
alone  is  worthy  of  their  homage  (cf.  Eph.  vi,  12). 

2.  We  have  seen  how  St.  Paul,  in  writing  to  those  who 
have  been  Jews,  struggles  with  the  sense  of  sin  and  a  broken 
law,  and  views  Christ  as  a  Saviour  who  atones  and  insures 
the  resurrection  from  death.  In  these  lattef  epistles,  how- 
ever, he  views  Christ  not  merely  as  an  atoning  Sacrifice  or 
as  a  Lord  working  over  and  for  us,  but  as  an  energizing 
Spirit  within.  Christ  is  really,  in  the  last  analysis,  our  own 
manhood  made  complete.    We  are  related  to  him,  therefore, 

[63-^] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

as  members  of  the  human  body  are  related  to  the  head  from 
which  they  receive  wisdom  and  direction  (Eph.  iv,  12  ;  Col. 
ii,  19  ;  cf.  I  Cor.  xii,  12-18).  And  so  there  is  scope  for  all 
the  varieties  of  function  which  men  of  different  talents  and 
temperaments  may  be  fitted  for  ;  while  deeply  underneath 
they  are  in  entire  spiritual  harmony  through  their  Head, 
making  up  one  solidarity  of  manhood,  which  can  be  gauged 
by  nothing  short  of  "a  fullgrown  man,"  according  to  "the 
measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ  "  (Eph.  iv,  1 3). 
This  he  calls  "  the  mystery,  .  .  .  which  is  Christ  in  you, 
the  hope  of  glory  "  (Col.  i,  27)  ;  using  the  term  "  mystery  " 
as  it  is  familiar  to  Greek  minds  (cf.  Eph.  iii,  3  ;  vi,  19),  from 
the  Eleusinian  and  other  mysteries  of  their  religion.  Chris- 
tianity also  has  its  esoteric  element,  its  mystery  ;  but  its  dis- 
tinction is  that  what  has  long  been  hidden  and-  occult  is  now 
revealed  (Col.  i,  26)  ;  a  mystery  whose  secret  may  become 
the  possession  of  all  men  who  will  accept  it. 

III.  From  Jewish  to  Christian  Idiom 

We  have  noted  how  St.  Paul,  in  his  great  work  with  the 
Gentiles,  translated  his  inherited  Jewish  ideas  into  Christian 
values  for  their  sakes,  and  how  at  a  later  stage  he  did  a 
similar  service  to  them  in  their  Greek  ways  of  thinking.  In 
this  kind  of  work  he  was  not  alone,  nor  was  it  for  Gentiles 
only  that  such  transformation  of  Jewish  ideas  had  to  be  made. 
For  believers  also  whose  antecedents  were  Jewish,  and  whose 
literary  heritage  had  been,  as  it  still  was,  only  the  Old 
Testament,  an  important  duty  of  the  early  Christian  writers 
was  to  expound  Old  Testament  usages,  types,  symbols,  and 
principles  in  the  light  of  the  new  Christian  faith,  or,  as  here 
expressed,  to  make  transition  from  Jewish  to  Christian  idiom. 
This  was  done  in  order  to  make  the  great  body  of  the  sacred 
literature  available  for  present  and  permanent  uses.  It  is 
thus  expressed  by  St.  Paul :   "  For  whatsoever  things  were 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

written  aforetime  were  written  for  our  learning,  that  through 
patience  and  through  comfort  of  the  scriptures  we  might 
have  hope  "  (Rom.  xv,  4). 

Several  prominent  epistles,  addressed  not  to  particular 
churches  or  individuals  but  to  the  Christian  world  in  general, 
embody  this  endeavor. 


Hebrews,  and  the  Fulfillment  of  Types,  It  may  be  noted 
that  the  quoted  passages  in  the  gospels,  the  Acts,  and  St. 
Paul's  epistles  are  detached  passages  taken  mostly  from  the 
Psalms  and  the  Prophets.  These  parts  of  Scripture,  as  being 
probably  those  in  most  familiar  use,  are  also  copiously  drawn 
upon  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  ;  which,  indeed,  is  fuller 
of  quotations  and  allusions  than  any  other  Scripture  book. 

-  Beyond  this,  however,  and  as  its  most  distinctive  trait, 
the  epistle  founds  itself  on  a  whole  line  of  the  old  literature. 
That  line  is  the  one  with  which  every  Jew  is  familiar ;  the 
one,  indeed,  by  which  he  sets  the  most  store.  It  is  the  line 
which  embodies  the  Mosaic  law,  the  ritual  services  of  the 
Temple,  and  the  providentially  ordered  course  of  history. 
The  writer's  aim  is  to  show  that  the  distinctive  ideas  under- 
lying the  Hebrew  history  and  worship  —  ideas  of  the  ministry 
of  ahgels,  of  the  rest  in  the  promised  land  as  secured  by  Moses 
and  Joshua,  of  the  high-priesthood  with  its  duties,  of  the 
most  holy  place,  of  the  whole  system  of  ritual  and  sacrifice 

—  are  merely  types  and  symbols  of  something  to  come  and, 
therefore,  in  themselves  unfinal.  The  perfect  fulfillment 
and  clarifier  of  all  these  is  Christ,  who  is  superior  to  men 
and  angels  and  the  Mediator  of  a  new  covenant.  In  him 
is  the  manhood  rest  and  home  after  which  men  of  faith 
aspired  through  all  the  dim  ages  before  him.  Of  these 
ancient  worthies  a  notable  bead-roll  is  given  in  the  eleventh 
chapter  ;  men  of  faith  and  sturdy  energy  of  whom  it  is  said  : 
!' They  that  say  such  things  make  it  manifest  that  they  are 

[634] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

seeking  after  a  country  of  their  own  "  (Heb.  xi,  14),  and  yet 
that  they  "  received  not  the  promise,  God  having  provided 
some  better  thing  concerning  us,  that  apart  from  us  they 
should  not  be  made  perfect "  (xi,  39,  40). 

The  epistle  is  thus  a  masterly  resume  and  interpretation 
of  the  Jewish  religious  and  traditional  system,  considered  as 
an  adumbration  of  (cf.  x,  i)  and  preparation  for  Christianity. 

The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  is  evidently  intended  prima- 
rily for  some  Christian  community  whose  members  are 
Origin  and  imbued  with  Jewish  ideas,  and  perhaps  living  in 
^^™  daily  contact  with  the  legal  customs  of  the  Old 

Testament.  No  community  is  so  fitted  to  answer  these 
conditions  as  the  church  at  Jerusalem,  the  mother  church, 
as  it  existed  before  the  destruction  of  the  city  and  the  Tem- 
ple A.D.  70.  Of  this  church  the  "great  three"  apostles, 
Peter  and  John  and  James  (the  last  named  the  brother  of 
Jesus),  were  the  leaders,  but  as  it  would  seem  in  the  larger 
capacity  of  general  directors  and  overseers,  and  not  of  men 
of  letters.  Besides  their  leadership  there  would  be  needed 
for  the  church,  especially  in  its  representative  and  standard- 
giving  capacity,  such  educative  training  in  their  literature 
as  a  treatise  like  this  could  give,  and  notably  to  those  who 
had  not  seen  Jesus  but  had  heard  of  him  from  those  who  had 
known  him  (cf.  Heb.  ii,  3). 

The  epistle  was  not  written,  as  the  Authorized  Version 
assumes,^  by  St.  Paul.  It  is  in  a  style  and  line  of  thinking 
quite  different  from  his,  though  it  is  so  truly  in  harmony 
with  his  ideas  that  he  may  well  have  had  some  connection 
with  the  production  of  it,  perhaps  as  counselor  and  adviser. 
The  likeliest  account  of  its  origin,  as  seems  to  me,  is  that 
of  Professor  Ramsay  ^,  who  believes  that  it  was  written  from 
Caesarea,  where  Philip  the  Evangelist  lived  (Acts  xxi,  8),  and 
that  its  date  of  composition  was  a.d.  59,  toward  the  end 

1  See  title  of  the  epistle  in  the  King  James  (Authorized)  Version. 

2  Ramsay,  "  Luke  the  Physician,"  pp.  301  ff. 

L635] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

of  the  procuratorship  of  Felix,  while  St.  Paul  was  a  state 
prisoner  there.  If  this  was  so,  the  writer  may  have  been 
Philip  himself,  who,  one  of  the  original  seven  deacons,  became 
an  evangelist  and  teacher  to  the  Christians  in  Samaria  and 
other  parts  who  had  been  Jews  (Acts  vi,  5  ;  viii,  5-8,  26,  40). 

Note.  The  AiitJwrsIiip.  Other  ideas  of  its  authorship  have  been 
advocated  :  that  it  was  written  by  Apollos,  by  Barnabas,  by  Priscilla 
(Harnack"s  idea) ;  but  these,  like  the  idea  here  adopted,  are  all  conjectural. 
The  authorship  is  a  secondary  matter.  The  fact  remains  that  the  epistle 
is  one  of  the  most  valuable  documents  of  the  early  Christianity,  supply- 
ing an  element  without  which  the  New  Testament  literature,  as  a  rounded 
and  finished  whole,  would  seem  distinctly  poorer. 


II 

James,  and  the  Wisdom  from  Above.  The  Epistle  of  James 
was  written  for  Christians  in  all  places  who  had  been  Jews  ; 
being  addressed  "  to  the  twelve  tribes  which  are  of  the  dis- 
persion "  (James  i,  i).  Its  author  was  not  James  the  son  of 
Zebedee,  who  was  put  to  death  a.d.  44  by  Herod  (Acts  xii, 
2)  ;  nor  James  the  son  of  Alphaeus  (  =  James  the  less),  of 
whom  nothing  is  recorded  (cf.  Matt,  x,  3  ;  Mark  xv,  40)  ; 
but  James  the  brother  of  Jesus,  who  was  not  one  of  the 
original  apostles,  but  became  a  believer  after  his  brother's 
resurrection,  and  later  was  the  primate  of  the  church  in  Jeru- 
salem. As  such,  he  was  in  the  fitting  position  to  write  such 
an  encyclical  letter  as  this  purports  to  be,  made  up  as  it  is 
of  practical  counsels  and  precepts  for  the  Christian's  daily 
living ;  not  scholarly  and  theological,  but  as  it  were  a  manual 
of  Christian  common-sense. 

As  Hebrews  has  illuminated  and  applied  the  historical 
and  ritual  strain  in  the  ancient  literature,  this  Epistle  of 
Its  Distinc-  James  follows  into  riper  significance  the  strain 
tive  Interest  Qf  Wisdom,  as  represented  in  such  books  as 
Proverbs  and  Job.  There  is  the  same  clearness  and  terseness 
of  phrase;  the  same  use  of  familiar  figures  and  analogies; 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

the  same  purpose  of  giving  counsel  for  the  practical  rela- 
tions of  life  and  society.  Its  tone  is  that  of  the  Wisdom 
literature.  It  defines  the  uses  of  trial,  the  virtue  of  stead- 
fastness and  sincerity,  the  real  spirit  of  practical  religion, 
the  law  of  Christian  liberty,  the  unity  before  God  of  high 
and  humble,  rich  and  poor,  the  Christian  control  of  the 
tongue,  and  many  more  such  things,  —  all  genuine  Wisdom 
principles  made  Christlike.  Highest  of  all,  it  inculcates,  as 
in  fundamental  contrast  to  earthly  wisdom,  "the  wisdom  that 
is  from  above,"  which  "is  first  pure,  then  peaceable,  gentle, 
easy  to  be  entreated,  full  of  mercy  and  good  fruits,  without 
fickleness,  without  hypocrisy"  (iii,  13-17).  It  takes  the 
values  of  Hebrew  Wisdom,  as  James  knew  them  through 
their  favorite  Scripture  utterances,  and  raises  them  to  their 
matured  Christian  power.^ 

An  immense  literary  interest  attaches  to  this  epistle, 
considered  as  the  work  of  James  the  brother  of  our  Lord. 
Its  Cultural  James  was  not  with  his  greater  brother  during 
Source  j-^g  latter's  Messianic  ministry,  but  the  boyhood 

and  young  manhood  of  the  two  must  have  been  passed  to- 
gether during  much  of  the  thirty  years  before  Jesus  entered 
upon  his  public  work.  The  epistle  doubtless  draws  many 
things  from  the  store  of  ideas  common  to  the  two  during 
their  early  life  in  Nazareth.  A  similar  cast  of  ideas  is  appar- 
ent in  the  utterances  of  the  brothers.  The  Epistle  of  James 
is  remarkably  parallel,  or  at  least  analogous,  in  many  places, 
both  in  its  use  of  illustrative  figures  and  in  its  interpretations 
of  truth,  to  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  which  comes  from 
Jesus'  initial  teaching,  and  to  the  parables  and  conversations 
which  reflect  his  personal  method.  Thus  it  embodies  much 
of  the  line  of  practical  truth  with  which  Jesus'  mind  was 
conversant  before  he  became  known  to  his  nation  through 
his  public  utterances. 

1  See  Genung,  "  The  Hebrew  Literature  of  Wisdom  in  the  Light  of 
To-day,"  Chapter  VII L 

[637] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

It  is  just  the  sane  practical  guidance  of  this  kind  that 
James  here  gives  for  the  community  of  Christian  brethren, 
"the  twelve  tribes  of  the  dispersion,"  who  have  supple- 
mented their  truest  Judaism  by  committing  themselves  to 
the  wisdom  of  Christ.  As  St.  Paul  the  scholar,  with  his 
wonderful  insight  into  the  mind  of  Jew  and  Greek,  has 
mirrored  the  theological  and  Christological  values  ;  as  the 
author  of  Hebrews,  imbued  with  the  ancient  historic  and 
symbolic  lore,  has  taken  this  as  it  was  ready  to  die  (cf.  Heb. 
viii,  13)  and  fixed  it  upon  its  permanent  antitype:  so  James, 
trained  in  the  sound  sense  of  the  Nazareth  home,  has  trans- 
lated "  the  breath  and  finer  spirit  "  of  wisdom  into  Christian 
values,  which  every  common  man,  whether  scholar  or  not, 
may  understand  and  live  by. 

Ill 

Epistles  from  Jesus'  Personal  Circle.  Besides  these  epis- 
tles of  Hebrews  and  James,  which  draw  their  thoughts 
largely  from  the  transformed  Old  Testament  values,  there 
are  two  general  epistles  from  St.  Peter,  the  chief  of  the 
apostles,  and  one  from  Jude,  '"  the  brother  of  James " 
(Jude  I),  and  so  of  Jesus.  These,  while  aware  of  the  Old 
Testament  stores  of  truth,  address  themselves  more  particu- 
larly to  the  current  hopes  and  perils  of  the  Christian  cause 
and  the  tendencies  which,  as  it  goes  on  to  later  conditions, 
that  cause  is  developing. 

St.  Peter's  first  epistle,  written  from  Rome  (which  city  he 
names  Babylon,  v,  13,  according  to  a  custom  of  the  early 
The  First  Christians),  is  much  in  the  manner  of  St.  Paul's  pas- 
Epistie  of  toral  letters,  counseling  the  Christian  '"  sojourners 
of  the  dispersion  "  (i,  i)  in  their  everyday  domes- 
tic relations  —  servants,  wives,  husbands  —  to  live  worthily 
of  their  priceless  hope,  as  good  citizens  and  pure-minded  men 

[  638  ] 

f 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

conscious  of  the  wonderful  redemption  that  is  theirs,  and  wait- 
ing patiently  for  the  coming  of  Christ.  The  apostle  writes 
in  the  shadow  of  approaching  trials  and  persecutions  which 
are  to  befall  the  Christian  community ;  and  he  is  especially 
concerned  that  in  the  spirit  of  their  Master  they  shall  suffer 
not  as  evildoers  but  as  righteous  and  inoffensive  men  (ii, 
15,  19,  20;  iii,  17;  iv,  14-16),  so  vindicating  a  Christian 
character  under  such  conditions  as  befell  their  Lord. 

Though  evidently  well  on  in  age,  and  in  a  position  of 
authority,  St.  Peter  writes  to  the  elders  of  the  churches  as 
a  "  fellow-elder  "  (v,  i),  putting  himself  by  the  side  of  them. 
The  whole  epistle  shows  in  a  notable  way  how  the  ministry 
and  teachings  of  Jesus  ripened  in  the  heart  of  his  most 
headstrong  disciple  into  a  beauty  of  steadfastness  and  suffer- 
ing for  righteousness'  sake,  which  spirit  he  inculcates  as 
the  church's  divine  power  against  the  wickedness  and  cor- 
ruptions of  the  world.  The  Master's  prayer  for  him  before 
his  denial  that  his  "  faith  fail  not"  (Luke  xxii,  31,  32)  was 
abundantly  answered.  No  other  epistle  in  the  Bible  is  so 
direct  a  reflection  of  the  life  and  words  of  the  Master. 

St.  Peter's  second  epistle,  which,  because  it  is  so  different 
in  style  and  spirit  from  the  first,  many  deny  to  him,  is  writ- 
The  Second  ^^"  when  more  troublous  times  have  come  upon 
Epistle  of  the  church,  not  only  from  without  in  the  shape 
^^^^^  of  persecutions  but  from  within  in  the  shape  of 

false  teachings,  hurtful  philosophies,  and  skepticism.  The 
church  is  evidently  coming  into  contact  with  the  wave  of 
gnostic  intellectualism  and  lawless  materialism  which  began 
to  invade  it  in  the  latter  part  of  the  first  century.  Belief  in 
the  parousia  was  coming  to  be  scoffed  at  by  those  who  could 
not  interpret  it  in  spiritual  terms;  and  the  writer  must  needs 
remind  them  that  dates  for  such  an  event  cannot  be  set, 
that  one  day  is  with  the  Lord  as  a  thousand  years  and  that 
the  event  will  come  suddenly,  apocalyptically,  and  without 

[  639  ] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

observation.  The  intuition  of  the  epistle  is  thus  upon  the 
verge  of  the  apocalyptic  disclosure  soon  to  come  in  the 
Revelation  of  John  ^  (2  Pet.  iii,  8-10;  cf.  Isa.  Iv,  11). 

The  epistle  purports  to  be  a  product  of  St.  Peter's  old 
age,  when  he  is  expecting  soon  to  "  strike  his  tent  "  (2  Pet. 
i,  13-15),  and  is  arranging  to  leave  such  a  remembrance  of 
Jesus  after  his  "  decease  "  (2  Pet.  i,  15  ;  cf.  Luke  ix,  31)  as 
shall  be  of  needed  service  to  the  Christian  world.  It  com- 
mends its  readers  also  to  the  epistles  of  St.  Paul  (2  Pet.  iii, 
15,  16),  whose  wisdom,  difficult  to  understand  but  harmoni- 
ous with  the  other  Christian  teachings,  is  set  beside  the 
other  scriptures  as  authoritative  and  weighty  for  instruction. 

St.  Jude,  who  calls  himself  "a  servant  of  Jesus  Christ 
and  brother  of  James"  (i,  i),  was,  like  James,  not  one  of 
The  Epistle  the  Original  apostles,  but  a  later  convert.  He 
of  Jude  writes  to  Christians  who  are  in  dangers  similar 

to  those  described  in  Second  Peter,  urging  them  "  to  con- 
tend earnestly  for  the  faith  which  was  once  for  all  delivered 
to  the  saints"  (Jude  3).  The  danger  which  he  confronts, 
however,  presents  itself  not  so  much  in  the  form  of  heresy 
and  false  doctrine  as  of  impurit\'  of  life,  —  the  unspeakable 
animalism  and  greed  against  which  the  early  church  had  so 
strenuously  to  contend  in  a  heathen  world.  He  shows  him- 
self a  competent  student  of  Scripture,  not  only  of  the  ac- 
credited Old  Testament  writings  but  also  of  the  apocalyptic 
writings  which  in  the  first  century  were  so  popular.  He 
refers  in  one  place  to  things  mentioned  in  Daniel's  visions 
and  other  works  (Jude  9;  cf.  Dan,  x,  13,  21  ;  xii,  i),  and 
in  another  to  the  Book  of  Knoch  (Jude  14 ;  cf.  Enoch  i,  9). 

The  doxology  with  which  the  epistle  closes  (vss.  24,  25) 
is  justly  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  beautiful  ascriptions 
to  be  found  in  its  whole  class  of  literature.  It  is  a  fitting 
end  to  the  epistolary  part  of  the  New  Testament  canon. 

1  See  below,  p.  664. 
[  640  ] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

IV.  The  Legacy  of  the  Beloved  Disciple 

In  our  consideration  of  the  gospels  as  completed,  it  will 
be  remembered  that  we  confined  ourselves  to  the  synoptic 
gospels,  reserving  the  fourth  gospel  to  what  was  deemed 
its  rfiore  fitting  place  in  the  literature  of  values.  We  now 
take  up  this  gospel,  with  other  writings  of  the  same  author, 
considering  them  as  an  old-age  legacy  of  one  who  was  an 
intimate  disciple  of  Jesus;  a  legacy  which,  coming  to  men 
at  a  time  when  their  spiritual  need  of.  it  was  greatest,  may 
be  regarded  as  the  crown  and  culmination  of  the  literature 
both  of  fact  and  of  values.  The  writings  of  the  beloved 
disciple  are  at  once  the  simplest,  the  directest,  and  the 
profoundest  in  the  whole  range  of  Biblical  literature.  They 
consist  of  the  fourth  gospel,  written  as  an  eye-witness  and 
ear-witness  testimony,  and  three  epistles,  the  first  of  which 
latter,  being  a  kind  of  appendix  to  the  gospel,  has  been 
aptly  called  the  "Postscript  Commendatory,"^ 


Who  was  the  Beloved  Disciple?  "This  is  the  disciple 
that  beareth  witness  of  these  things,  and  wrote  these  things  : 
and  we  know  that  his  witness  is  true  "  (John.xxi,  24).  Thus 
is  worded  a  certificate  of  authenticity  attached  to  the  end  of 
the  fourth  gospel ;  and  the  disciple  thus  referred  to  is  re- 
peatedly called  "the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved  "  (John  xiii, 
23  ;  xix,  26  ;  xx,  2,  3  ;  xxi,  7,  20).  He  is  nowhere  mentioned 
by  name  ;  but  in  2  John  i  and  3  John  i ,  which  were  written 
by  the  same  person  who  wrote  the  gospel,  he  calls  himself 
"the  elder,"  and  in  the  first  epistle  writes  in  the  manner 
of  a  very  old  and  revered  man  (cf.  i  John  ii,  i,  12,  13,  18). 
The  certificate  speaks  of  him  as  still  living  and  bearing  wit- 
ness, and  yet  as  having  written  "  these  things  "  (namely, 
in  the  gospel).    It  seems  most  probable  therefore  that  this 

1  By  Bishop  Lightfoot. 

[641] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

voucher  was  given  after  the  gospel  was  written  and  before 
the  first  epistle.  It  is  evidently  the  author  himself  who 
wishes  his  name  withheld,  and  though  his  name  and  claims 
are  well  known  his  wish  is  respected. 

Who  this  author  was  has  of  late  years  been  vigorously 
called  in  question  ;  and  this  question,  with  accompanying 
problems  of  age  and  circumstances  of  writing,  has  made  the 
so-called  Johannine  problem  one  of  the  most  vexed  enigmas 
of  modern  criticism.  Let  us  consider  what  data  we  have  for 
forming  an  opinion  :  data  of  tradition  and  of  the  Bible  itself. 

I .  Tradition  has  held  since  the  last  quarter  of  the  second 
century  that  the  author  so  obscurely  referred  to  was  John, 
one  of  the  original  twelve  apostles ;  and  accordingly  the 
gospel  and  the  epistles  have  come  down  to  us  with  his 
name.  Some  facts  of  John's  life  make  the  ascription  nat- 
ural. John,  the  son  of  Zebedee,  from  some  place  on  the  Sea 
of  Galilee,  probably  Bethsaida,  was  one  of  the  earliest  of 
Jesus'  disciples  (cf.  Mark  i,  19,  for  his  call).  His  father,  who 
carried  on  the  fisher's  trade,  seems  to  have  been  a  man  in 
well-to-do  circumstances  (cf.  Mark  i,  20,  "  hired  servants"). 
His  mother,  who  is  most  probably  identified  with  Salome 
(cf.  Matt,  xxvii,  56,  and  Mark  xv,  40,  with  John  xix,  25), 
seems  to  have  been  the  sister  of  Jesus'  mother  ;  hence  John 
and  Jesus  w^ere  first  cousins.  If  so,  John  was  also  a  kinsman 
of  John  the  Baptist  (cf .  Luke  i,  36) ;  but  whether  he  was  ever 
a  disciple  of  the  Baptist  is  uncertain  ;  our  identification  of 
the  unnamed  disciple  in  John  i,  40,  is  all  we  have- to  go  by. 
He  was  a  younger  brother  of  James  ;  and  the  three,  James 
and  John  and  Peter,  were  the  most  intimate  of  Jesus'  dis- 
ciples. These  were  the  ones  chosen  to  witness  the  most 
solemn  events  of  the  Master's  ministry :  the  raising  of 
Jairus'  daughter  (Mark  v,  37),  the  transfiguration  (Luke  ix, 
28),  and  the  midnight  prayer  in  Gethsemane  (Mark  xiv,  33). 
Whenever  John  is  mentioned  he  is  associated  with  others, 
with  James  or  Peter  or  both.    Only  one  remark  is  recorded 

[642] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

of  him  alone,  when  the  Master  corrects  his  mistaken  zeal  in 
forbidding  the  casting  out  of  demons  by  one  who  is  not  a 
disciple  (Mark  ix,  38  ;  Luke  ix,  49).  It  is  much  the  same 
when,  after  Jesus'  ascension,  he  becomes  one  of  the  chief 
apostles.  He  and  Peter  begin  the  Jerusalem  ministry  together 
(Acts  iii,  iv)  ;  but  Peter  is  always  the  speaker  and  man 
of  action,  while  John  is  the  companion.  The  two  brothers 
James  and  John  were  surnamed  Boanerges  by  Jesus,  that  is, 
"sons  of  thunder"  (Mark  iii,  17),  perhaps  from  their  im- 
petuous and  vehement  temperament,  in  which- they  seemed  to 
be  alike.  That  they  had  political  ambitions  is  indicated  by 
their  request  for  high  distinctions  in  the  coming  kingdom 
(Mark  x,  35-37,  but  perhaps  the  original  idea  was  their 
mother's  ;  see  Matt,  xx,  20-21).  These  items  are  all  that  are 
given  us  of  John  the  son  of  Zebedee,  except  by  tradition. 
Whether  the  John  of  the  Apocalypse  (Rev.  i,  1,4,  9)  is  the 
same  person  is  quite  conjectural. 

2.  Other  circumstances  there  are,  however,  about  this 
mysterious  "disciple  whom  Jesus  loved,"  which  make  his 
identification  with  John  uncertain.  To  enumerate  all  these 
is  of  course  not  in  place  here.  He  is  first  mentioned,  as  if 
introduced  as  a  new  member  of  the  circle,  in  John  xiii,  23, 
where  his  intimacy  with  Jesus  is  indicated  by  the  circum- 
stance of  his  reclining  on  Jesus'  breast  at  table,  the  same 
circumstance  being  used  again  as  his  identifying  token  (xxi, 
20)  when  he  is  last  mentioned.  This  would  seem  a  rather 
strange  way  of  introducing  one  who  had  been  a  prominent 
member  of  the  circle  from  the  beginning.  It  was  to  this 
disciple  that  Jesus  on  the  cross  committed  the  care  of  his 
mother  (xix,  26)  ;  and  the  fact  that  "  from  that  hour  the 
disciple  took  her  unto  his  own  home  "  (vs.  27)  would  indi- 
cate that  his  home  was  in  or  near  Jerusalem,  whereas  John's, 
on  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  was  ninety  miles  away.  The  fact  that 
he  was  known  to  the  high  priest  and  procured  admission  for 
Peter  to  the  court  (xviii,  16),  which  it  is  hard  to  say  of  the 

[643] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Galilean  John,  is  another  indication  in  the  same  direction  ; 
to  which  may  be  added  that  the  whole  gospel  written  by  this 
disciple  deals  more  with  events  in  Judea  than  in  Galilee. 
Finally  we  may  note  that  when,  at  Jesus'  arrest  in  the 
garden,  the  recognized  band  of  disciples,  perhaps  at  Jesus' 
request  (cf.  John  xviii,  8),  forsook  him  and  fled  (Matt,  xxvi, 
56),  though  Peter  afterwards  '"  followed  him  afar  off  "  (Matt, 
xxvi,  58),  this  disciple  alone  remained  with  his  Master  till 
the  end  and  saw  the  piercing  of  his  side  with  the  spear 
(John  xix,  35  ;cf.  i  John  v,  6),.  It  is  impossible,  with  the 
data  we  have,  to  trace  these  circumstances  to  John  the  son 
of  Zebedee  ;  though,  to  be  sure,  they  are  not  conclusive 
against  him. 

As  the  case  for  the  John  of  tradition  is  felt  to  be  less 
decisive,  the  field  is  left  more  open  for  surmise,  if  plausible 
Grounds  for  ^^^^^  ^^^  forthcoming,  as  to  who  the  beloved  dis- 
a  New  ciple  really  was.    A  circumstance  of  considerable 

urmise  weight  seems  to  the  present  writer  to  make  for 
the  identification  with  a  person  to  whom  hitherto  little  atten- 
tion has  been  paid.  It  will  have  been  noted  that  "  the  dis- 
ciple who  wrote  these  things  "  does  not  mention  himself  as 
the  beloved  of  Jesus  until  he  narrates  the  events  of  the  last 
supper.  In  giving  the  account  of  the  raising  of  Lazarus, 
a  few  days  before,  he  adduces  testimony  from  the  sisters 
(John  xi,  3),  from  the  Jews  (vs.  36),  and  from  himself 
(vs.  5),  to  the  exceptional  love  of  Jesus  for  Lazarus  ;  a  fact 
the  more  remarkable  because  only  one  other  case  is  men- 
tioned, and  this  only  casual,  where  Jesus  is  represented  as 
bestowing  individual  love  (Mark  x,  21).  If,  acting  on  this 
clue,  we  postulate  Lazarus  of  liethany  as  the  author  of  the 
fourth  gospel,  many  things,  such  as  his  residence  at  or  near 
Jerusalem,  his  services  to  the  Galileans  when  they  were 
there,  his  acquaintance  with  leading  Jews  of  the  capital  and 
their  ways,  and  his  predominant  attention  to  the  events  of 
the  Judcan   ministry,  are   naturally   and   lucidly  explained. 

[644] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

We  could  add  data,  and  especially  a  general  tone  of  con- 
sciousness, of  a  more  mystic  sort,  suitable  to  one  who,  hav- 
ing been  recalled  from  death,  had  thenceforth  a  new  attitude 
toward  the  unseen  ;  such  as  the  curious  notion  among  his 
friends  that  he  would  never  die  (John  xxi,  23),  and  his 
uniform  treatment,  both  in  gospel  and  epistle,  of  eternal 
life  as  a  present  thing.  Further  considerations,  however,  for 
or  against,  may  be  left  to  the  more  intuitive  and  spiritually 
minded  thinker,  to  whom  their  weight  and  reality  can  best 
appeal.^ 

II 

The  Story  Told  Once  More.  It  was  in  the  old  age  of  the 
Beloved  Disciple,  when  the  facts  of  Jesus'  ministry  would 
be  recalled  from  two  generations  of  time,  and  when  a  long 
period  of  matured  reflection  and  interpretation  intervened, 
that  the  world  received  the  fourth  gospel,  the  profoundest 
and  3'et  simplest  account  of  Jesus'  personality  and  work  that 
there  is  in  existence..  This  lateness  of  date  does  not  make 
against  its  authenticity  as  a  record  of  Jesus'  life.  We  all 
know  how  much  more  exact  and  vivid  early  life-memories 
are  than  later  ones,  especially  if  the  events  remembered 
have  had  a  determining  effect  on  the  person's  whole  life. 
At  the  same  time  long  conversance  with  such  memories, 
and  comparison  of  them  with  later  ideas  and  conditions, 
tend  to  reduce  them  to  simpler  and  clearer  terms.  The  fact, 
which  as  embodied  in  teaching  or  event  may  at  the  time  of 
it  have  been  hard  to  understand,  has  with  growth  of  years 

^  See  note,  p.  576,  above.  For  the  broaching  of  this  Lazarus  question,  see 
article  by  James  Jones,  B.  Sc,  in  The  /iiterprete>;  July,  1914.  Professor 
H.  B.  Swete  thinks  that  the  young  man  mentioned  in  Mark  x,  21,  subse- 
quently returned  and  became  known  as  the  beloved  disciple  ;  see /on ma/  of 
Theological  Studies,  July,  1916.  Professor  Garvie  thinks  that  this  disciple 
was  himself  the  householder  in  whose  upper  room  the  last  supper  was 
held;  see  "  Studies  in  the  Inner  Life  of  Jesus,"  p.  351.  These  facts  show 
how  uncertain  the  case  of  John  the  son  of  Zebedee  has  come  to  be  held. 

[645] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

become  luminous  with  meanings  not  sensed  before ;  or,  in 
other  words,  has  revealed  its  real  and  permanent  values. 
Such  is  the  unique  distinction  of  the  fourth  gospel.  It  is 
written  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  giving  the  supreme 
values  of  the  great  Christian  fact :  to  make  the  men  of  a 
later  time  see  the  divinity  of  Christ  as  it  is  and  commit 
themselves  to  it.  To  this  end  the  author  does  not  profess 
to  give  all  the  facts  of  Jesus'  ministry,  but  only  such  selec- 
tion of  facts  as  makes  for  his  purpose  ;  facts  so  proportioned 
and  coordinated  as  to  make  his  work  an  exposition  by  narra- 
tion. "  Many  other  signs,"  he  writes,  "  did  Jesus  in  the  pres- 
ence of  his  disciples,  which  are  not  written  in  this  book  : 
but  these  are  written,  that  ye  may  believe  that  Jesus  is  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God  ;  and  that  believing  ye  may  have 
life  in  his  name"  (John  xx,  30,  31). 

Note.  The  Author's  Purpose.  Browning  has  depicted  in  a  masterly 
way  the  genesis  and  purpose  of  the  fourth  gospel,  in  his  poem  "  A 
Death  in  the  Desert "  ;  which  represents  the  aged  John,  as  his  dying 
act,  explaining  how  he  retold  the  life  of  Christ  to  meet  the  gainsayers 
of  his  late  day : 

I  never  thought  to  call  down  fire  on  such, 

Or,  as  in  wonderful  and  early  days, 

Pick  up  the  scorpion,  tread  the  serpent  dumb; 

But  patient  stated  much  of  the  Lord's  life 

Forgotten  or  misdelivered,  and  let  it  work  ; 

Since  much  that  at  the  first,  in  deed  and  word, 

Lay  simply  and  sufficiently  exposed, 

Had  grown  (or  else  my  soul  was  grown  to  match, 

Fed  through  such  years,  familiar  with  such  light, 

Guarded  and  guided  still  to  see  and  speak) 

Of  new  significance  and  fresh  result; 

What  first  were  guessed  as  points,  I  now  knew  stars, 

And  named  them  in  the  Gospel  I  have  writ.^ 

For  the  allusions  in  the  passage,  cf.  Luke  ix,  54;  Mark  xvi,  18;  Acts 
xxviii,  3-6.  The  whole  spiritual  and  literary  process,  wherein  the 
divine  revelation  and  the  human  intuition  are  alike  honored,  is  here 
indicated. 

1  Browning,  "  A  Death  in  the  Desert,"  11.  163-175. 

[646] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

As  belonging  to  the  literature  both  of  fact  and  of  values,  the 
fourth  gospel  calls  for  brief  consideration  in  these  two  aspects. 

There  was  no  occasion  at  the  time  this  gospel  was  written 
to  retell  the  whole  story  of  Jesus'  ministry,  as  the  synoptic 
Its  Contribu-  gospels  were  already  long  current  and  standard  ; 
tion  of  Fact  j^qj-  ^^g  ^]^q  author  minded  to  correct  erroneous 
statements  of  the  synoptics,  though  in  a  few  cases  he  silently 
does  so.  His  object  evidently  was  to  supplement  them  by 
giving  some  parts  and  aspects  of  Jesus'  ministry  which  they 
had  not  had  so  good  opportunity,  or  ability,  to  narrate.  The 
most  important  of  this  supplementary  matter  relates  to  Jesus' 
ministry  in  Judea,  which  he  is  represented  to  have  con- 
ducted in  connection  with  his  visits  to  the  Jewish  feasts  at 
Jerusalem.  The  other  gospels  are  almost  entirely  confined 
to  his  ministry  in  Galilee  and  among  the  common  people  ; 
this  more  predominantly  to  his  teaching  at  the  capital  and 
among  the  leaders  of  religion  and  culture  :  a  fact  which  may 
in  part  account  for  its  more  esoteric  and  as  it  were  scholarly 
tone,  and  for  Jesus'  almost  defiant  assertion  of  his  divine 
warrant  and  claims,  as  against  a  stubborn  and  unspiritual 
educated  class.^  Without  this  account  of  his  contact  with 
the  culture  and  bigotry  of  his  time  our  idea  of  the  rounded 
completeness  of  his  ministry  would  be  essentially  lacking ; 
with  it  his  work  is  balanced  and  proportioned  as  we  should 
expect  so  momentous  a  work  to  be. 

It  is  from  this  gospel  that  we  get  the  best  notion  of  the 
length  as  well  as  of  the  distribution  of  Jesus'  ministry ;  this 
because  the  feast  seasons,  at  which  he  made  his  periodical 
visits  to  Jerusalem,  form  a  chronological  series  of  landmarks, 
from  which  it  is  deduced  that  his  public  ministry,  for  whose 
measurement  the  synoptists  furnish  only  scant  data,  lasted 
somewhat  over  three  years.  And  as  for  its  personal  relations, 
we  are  in  this  gospel  brought  in  contact  not  only  with  the 

1  This  is  considered  under  "His  Utterances  in  Divine  Character";  see 
preceding,  pp.  561  f. 

[647] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Jewish  leaders  whose  antipathy  to  Jesus  was  so  violent,  but 
also  with  the  more  spiritually  minded  ones  who  after  his 
ascension  would  form  an  important  element  of  loyalty  and 
learning  in  the  years  of  the  early  Christian  cause. 

Nor  was  it  among  the  leaders  alone  and  in  public 
encounters,  nor  even  predominantly  so,  that  he  is  repre- 
sented as  moving  and  ministering.  This  gospel,  if  more 
mystic  and  sublime  than  the  others,  is  also  more  intimately 
human,  more  companionable,  as  it  were  more  domestic.  It 
is  this  gospel  that  records  Jesus'  attendance  at  the  wed- 
ding in  Cana  (ii,  i-ii),  his  conversations  with  Nicodemus 
(iii,  1-2 1)  and  the  woman  of  Samaria  (iv,  1-42),  his  inter- 
views with  the  invalid  at  Bethesda  (v,  2-18)  and  with  the 
man  born  blind  (ix,  1-41),  his  reception  of  the  Greeks  who 
came  to  worship  at  the  feast  (xii,  20-32),  and  his  friendship 
with  the  family  at  Bethany,  where  he  raised  Lazarus  from 
the  dead  (xi,  1-44)  and  where  at  a  supper  given  him  one 
of  the  sisters  of  Lazarus  anointed  his  feet  (xii,  1-8).  Thus, 
in  portraying  the  highest  Being  that  ever  walked  our  earth 
as  the  most  human  too,  this  gospel  furnishes  an  important 
balancing  element  to  the  synoptics. 

Unlike  the  matter-of-fact  consciousness  of  the  synoptics, 

and  the  dialectic  disposition  of  St.  Paul,  the  tone  of  this 

s^ospel    is    eminently    intuitive   and   penetrative  : 

Its  Realistic    *-'      '  -'  '  _ 

Sense  of  the  work  of  a  mind  which,  without  having  to  pass 
Divine  through  intermediate  stages  of  premise  and  in- 

ference, sees  the  bearings  and  ultimate  reaches 
of  truth  as  it  were  visually  and  at  once.  Such  a  mind  does 
not  argue,  it  asserts ;  its  view  of  truth  is  not  relative  but 
absolute.  This  trait  of  it,  uncommonly  keen  by  nature,  was 
doubtless  enhanced  by  the  long  reflection  and  seasoning 
through  which  until  extreme  old  age  the  author's  memory 
of  things  passed.  Of  him  we  may  say,  more  truly  than  did 
Matthew  Arnold  of  Sophocles,  that  it  was  he 
Who  saw  life  steadily,  and  saw  it  whole ; 
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THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

only,  that  life  which  he  saw  was  embodied  in  one  supreme 
Personality,  whose  life  was  the  light  of  men. 

Hence  the  life  of  Jesus  is  in  this  gospel  portrayed  not 
as  common  and  bewildered  men  first 'saw  it,  or  as  it  appears 
from  a  matter-of-fact  level,  but  as  a  man  of  intuitive  genius 
came  to  realize  its  inner  and  perfected  meanings.  Beyond 
other  Scripture  books  this  retold  story,  with  its  pendant  the 
First  Epistle  of  John,  is  the  great  summarizer,  the  great 
definer  of  terms.  It  begins  by  introducing  Jesus  not  as  a 
child  nor  as  a  consecrated  minister  but  as  "  the  Word," 
which  from  the  beginning  expressed  the  thought  and  spirit 
of  God  ;  which  created  all  things  ;  which  becoming  flesh 
and  dwelling  among  men  was  the  light  of  their  true  life 
and  gave  them  power  to  become  sons  of  God.  From  the 
moment  he  is  thus  transcendently  introduced,  however,  the 
events  of  his  ministry  are  narrated  not  allegorically  but  in 
such  realistic  terms  as  connote  the  observation  of  an  eye- 
witness, yet  with  such  simple  sublimity  as  beseems  the 
divine  personality  and  wisdom  and  power.  No  other  gospel 
is  made  up  so  uniformly  of  Jesus'  words  and  acts  in  divine 
character  ;  yet  in  none  is  the  manhood  more  self-consistent 
md  homogeneous  in  the  realistic  sense  of  its  derivation 
tom  the  divine. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  certificate  which  at  the  end  of  the 
g»spel  identifies  the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved  with  the  one 
itsAuthor's  who  '"  beareth  witness  of  these  things  and  wrote 
Pesonaiity  thesc  things  "  adds  the  words,  "  we  know  that 
his  witness  is  true"  (John  xxi,  24).  How  did  the  writers 
of  his  affidavit  know  ?  It  does  not  seem  likely  that  they 
wen  aged  contemporaries  of  his,  themselves  eyewitnesses 
of  tie  gospel  facts  ;  rather,  it  would  seem,  there  was  some- 
thinj  in  his  personality,  and  perhaps  in  his  experience, 
whic.  was  an  absolute  voucher  for  the  truth  of  his  state- 
ment. The  question  is  important  because  of  the  well-meant 
but  iupcrson;;!  criticism   which   the  book   has  encountered, 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Its  style  is  so  different  from  that  of  the  synoptics,  and 
bears  the  marks  of  so  much  maturer  thought,  that  it  did 
not  seem,  on  critical  grounds,  to  deal  with  the  actual  words 
and  deeds  of  the  Jesus  whom  the  synoptists  portray.  The 
difficulty  is  a  real  one  ;  but  to  meet  it  negatively  raises 
a  problem  greater  than  it  solves.  If  the  words  and  works 
of  Jesus  here  recorded  are  not  substantially  authentic  (and 
the  criticism  hinges  on  this),  we  must  needs  find  an  author 
who  could  have  invented  them  and  he  must  have  a  mind 
and  personality  of  the  Christ  caliber.  The  spirit  of  the  book 
is  utterly  inconsistent  with  being  a  literary  toiir  dc  force 
manufactured  either  out  of  some  writer's  head  or  out  of  an 
evolved  Christian  consciousness.  The  intrinsic  character  of 
the  words  and  acts  makes  them  the  despair  of  literary  inven- 
tion. The  line  of  least  resistance,  it  seems,  is  to  accept,  as 
the  certificate  does,  a  personality  specially  gifted  and  pre- 
pared, who  could  so  remember  and  assimilate  the  deeper 
and  diviner  elements  of  Jesus'  revelation  of  himself  as  to 
reproduce  them  accurately  and  adequately.  It  is  to  the 
unnamed  author's  personality  that  we  must  look,  to  his 
exceptional  spiritual  and  intuitional  endowments. 

What  these  endowments  were,  or  at  least  their  sprin; 
and  impulsion,  he  himself  reticently  intimates  in  his  chara;- 
terization  of  himself  as  "one  of  his  disciples,  whom  Jesis 
loved"  (John  xiii,  23).  It  was  by  love  that  the  Maste's 
inmost  heart  was  revealed  to  him  ;  it  was  by  an  answerhg 
love  (for  love  is  a  reciprocal  thing)  that  he  could  abs)rb 
and  retain  the  things  of  Christ  which  went  so  much  de^er 
than  others  eould  see.  The  Master  had  said,  on  his  last 
meeting  with  his  disciples,  "  I  have  yet  many  things  tc  say 
unto  you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now"  (John  xvi,  12); 
he  had  also  said  of  the  Spirit  of  truth  whom  he  would  >end, 
"He  shall  take  of  mine,  and  shall  declare  it  unto  you" 
(vs.  14).  This  disciple  it  was  who  remembered  these  wrds, 
who  impressed  them  on  a  heart  bound  by  a  peculir  love 

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THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

to  that  of  Jesus,  and  who  when  men  could  best  bear  them 
and  most  needed  them  was  spared  to  give  them  to  the 
world.  It  was  the  world's  greatest  example  of  what  Carlyle 
has  noted  of  an  English  biographer,  "  inspired  only  by  love, 
and  the  recognition  and  vision  which  love  can  lend."  And 
the  result  we  may  put  also  in  Carlyle's  words,  except  that 
we  must  heighten  his  idea  of  nature  :  "  That  .  .  .  Work  of 
his  is  as  a  picture  by  one  of  Nature's  own  Artists ;  the 
best  possible  resemblance  of  a  Reality ;  like  the  very  image 
thereof  in  a  clear  mirror.  Which  indeed  it  was  :  let  but 
the  mirror  be  clear,  this  is  the  great  point ;  the  picture  must 
and  will  be  genuine."^ 

Thus,  while  the  author  of  the  fourth  gospel  has  en- 
deavored to  efface  his  personality,  so  far  as  self-assertion 
is  concerned,  the  wonderful  insight  of  it  and  its  realistic 
vision  of  the  divine  are  evident  in  every  line,  molding  it 
by  the  mind  of  Christ.  Other  traits  there  are  also,  pointing 
to  a  still  more  intimate  sharing  of  the  Master's  purpose  and 
thought ;  which,  however,  we  will  not  go  into  here.^ 

Ill 

The  "  Postscript  Commendatory."  This  designation,  which 
has  been  given  by  Bishop  Lightfoot  to  the  First  Epistle 
of  John,  fits  its  character  and  purpose  well.  It  is  a  kind 
of  companion  piece  to  the  fourth  gospel,  but  whether  writ- 
ten before  or  after  is  not  quite  apparent,  and  couched  in 
words  such  as  a  very  old  man,  full  of  wonderful  memories 
ard  the  ideas  of  life  derived  therefrom,  would  write  to  friends 
and  disciples  so  much  younger  that  they  are  regarded  as 
"little  children"  (cf.  i  John  ii,  i,  12,  13,  18,  etc.)  needing 
guidance  in  the  simplest  but  at  the  same  time  the  largest 
and  most  vital  values.  It  starts  from  the  same  realistic 
sense  of  Jesus'  divine  nature  which  we  have  noted  in  the 

^  Carlyle's  Essay  on  Boswell's  Johnson,  Works,  Vol.  XXVIII,  p.  75. 
^  Connected  with  the  '"  New  Surmise  " ;  see  preceding,  p.  644. 

[651] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

gospel ;  labors,  indeed,  to  express  it  in  the  most  explicit 
terms  :  "  That  which  was  from  the  beginning,  that  which 
we  have  heard,  that  which  we  have  seen  with  our  eyes, 
that  which  we  beheld,  and  our  hands  handled,  concerning 
the  Word  of  life,  —  and  the  life  was  manifested,  and  we 
have  seen,  and  bear  witness,  and  declare  unto  you  the 
life,  the  eternal  life,  which  was  with  the  Father,  and  was 
manifested  unto  us  "  (i  John  i,  i,  2).  As  the  object  of  the 
gospel  was  to  induce  belief  (John  xx,  31),  the  object  of  this 
"postscript  commendatory"  is  to  induce  fellowship  in  the 
Father  and  the  Son,  and  the  communal  joy  that  results 
therefrom.  "  That  which  we  have  seen  and  heard  declare 
we  unto  you  also,  that  ye  also  may  have  fellowship  with  us ; 
yea,  and  our  fellowship  is  with  the  Father,  and  with  his 
Son  Jesus  Christ ;  and  these  things  we  write,  that  our  joy 
may  be  made  full "  (i  John  i,  3,  4).  It  is  as  if  the  "  disciple 
whom  Jesus  loved,"  who  had  received  such  unusual  access 
of  divine  light  and  truth,  were  minded  to  make  every  man 
a  sharer  with  him  in  the  same,  and  so  unite  the  world  of 
Christian  believers  in  one  spirit  and  fellowship.  "If  we 
walk  in  the  light,"  he  says,  "as  he  is  in  the  light,  we  have 
fellowship  one  with  another"  (i,  7). 

Note.  Its  Occasion.  As  a  modern  description  of  its  occasion, 
we  may  again  quote  the  words  of  Browning,  who  puts  the  epistles  of 
John  after  the  Apocalypse  (which  he  ascribes  to  him  ;  see  next  chapte') 
and  before  his  gospel  but,  like  the  gospel,  in  his  old  age : 

Then,  for  my  time  grew  brief,  no  message  more. 

No  call  to  write  again,  I  found  a  way, 

And,  reasoning  from  my  knowledge,  merely  taught 

Men  should,  for  love's  sake,  in  love's  strength  believe; 

Or  I  would  pen  a  letter  to  a  friend 

And  urge  the  same  as  friend,  nor  less  nor  more : 

Friends  said  I  reasoned  rightly,  and  believed. 

These  words  have  in  mind  not  only  the  first  epistle  of  John  bit  the 
second  and  third,  written  by  "  the  elder  "  respectively  to  "  the  elec  lady 
and  her  children  "  (2  John  i),  and  to  "  Gains  the  beloved"  (3  Jo'in  i); 
but  the  description  applies  equally  to  this  first  epistle. 

[652] 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  VALUES 

Though  anonymous,  the  epistle  leaves  no  reasonable  doubt 
that  it  is  by  the  author  of  the  gospel.  As  a  kind  of  circular 
Substance  of  writing  intended  for  the  same  readers  as  the  gos- 
its  Message  pel,  it  does  not  have  occasion  for  the  conventional 
epistolary  address  and  salutation.  Its  background  is  the 
truth  brought  to  light  in  the  gospel  story,  and  it  is  written 
as  if  the  author  were  fresh  from  his  intimate  conversance 
with  the  life  of  Jesus  and  its  deep  meanings. 

This  epistle  uses  the  substance  of  the  gospel  truth  in  two 
ways  :  as  an  antidote  to  certain  false  teachings  that  are 
creeping  into  the  churches  and  as  a  summary  of  all  that 
is  requisite  for  eternal  life.  It  is  thus  controversial  —  in  its 
absolute  way  —  as  well  as  interpretative. 

I.  Two  heresies  were  endangering  the  purity  of  the 
church  in  the  aged  disciple's  day.  One  was  that  of  the 
Nicolaitans  (mentioned  by  name  in  Rev.  ii,  6,  14,  15),  who 
from  a  false  idea  of  the  sinlessness  of  Christians  and  the 
vileness  of  the  flesh  were  allowing  themselves  to  indulge  in 
unrestrained  licentiousness,  as  if  it  were  of  no  moral  signifi- 
cance. Against  this  heresy,  which  was  rampant  in  Asia 
Minor,  his  condemnation  is  emphatic  and  unsparing  (see  i, 
5  ;  ii,  6,  15,  17  ;  iii,  3-10).  Equally  so  is  his  condemnation 
of  another  heresy,  introduced  by  Cerinthus  (the  name  does 
not  occur  in  Scripture),  whom  he  designates  as  Antichrist. 
This  man  had  a  theory  which  denied  the  divine  nature  of 
Jesus,  distinguishing  the  historical  Jesus  from  the  tran- 
scendent Christ,  and  thus  dissolving  his  personality  in  phil- 
osophic speculation.  Against  this  the  writer,  fresh  from  his 
memories  of  the  Master,  opposes  strenuous  opposition,  in- 
sisting on  the  truth  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  who  has  come 
in  the  flesh  (see  ii,  18-23;  iv,  1-6;  13-15;  v,  1-12).  It 
may  be  seen  how  eminently  fitting,  at  the  late  day  when  the 
epistle  was  written,  this  testimony  of  the  beloved  disciple 
who  had  seen  and  heard  and  touched  Jesus  was,  in  order 
to  meet  the  newer  needs. 

[653] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

2.  As  interpretative  of  the  gospel  truth,  the  epistle  evinces 
a  notable  purpose  to  resolve  its  vital  principles  into  plain 
terms  and  to  propose  many  simple  but  searching  tests  of 
truth  or  falsity  in  life  and  faith.  These  tests,  beginning  with 
"  Hereby  we  know,"  or  "  perceive  "  (cf.  ii,  3,  5  ;  iii,  16,  19, 
24  ;  iv,  2,  6,  13),  are, a  very  characteristic  feature.  The  key- 
note of  the  epistle  is  love.  It  is  this  writer  alone,  "  the  dis- 
ciple whom  Jesus  loved,"  of  all  the  New  Testament  writers, 
who  says  plainly  that  God  is  love,  and  who  makes  the  sweep- 
ing deduction  that  he  who  loves  abides  in  God  and  God  in 
him  (iv,  8,  16),  —  an  assertion  that  it  requires  a  daring 
thinker  to  make.  The  test  of  the  genuineness  of  such  love 
is  our  love  for  our  brother  whom  we  have  seen  rather  than 
of  God  whom  we  have  not  seen  (iv,  20)  ;  that  is,  the  com- 
pleted fellowship  for  the  sake  of  which  the  epistle  is  written. 
On  the  indications  and  tests  of  this  Christian  love  the 
author's  language  is  very  absolute  and  emphatic.  As  if  it 
were  the  one  "  word  "  in  which  the  whole  literature  of  the 
Bible  is  concentrated,  he  commends  love  as  the  new  com- 
mandment, comprising  the  whole  duty  of  man  (ii,  8). 

The  second  and  third  epistles  of  John,  both  very  short, 
are  addressed  to  private  persons.  To  "  the  elect  lady  and 
The  Other  ^^^^  children,"  who  are  addressed  in  the  second 
Epistles  epistle,  he  gives  his  favorite  exhortation,  "  that 
we  love  one  another"  (vs.  5),  and  warns  against  counte- 
nancing or  receiving  any  deceiver  or  ""  antichrist  "  who  walks 
not  in  the  spirit  of  this  fundamental  virtue  (vss.  7,  10). 
Gains  the  beloved,  who  is  addressed  in  the  third  epistle,  is 
commended  for  receiving  and  aiding  some  itinerant  Chris- 
tian teachers,  in  contrast  to  a  certain  Diotrephes,  apparently 
a  domineering  layman  in  the  church,  who  had  been  morose 
and  inhospitable  toward  such.  Both  of  these  epistles,  though 
addressed  to  individuals,  seem  intended  also  for  church 
counsels;  and  in  both  the  writer  calls  himself  "the  elder." 

[654] 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  RESURGENCE  OF  PROPHECY 

[Near  the  end  of  the  first  century] 

PROPHECY  was  the  most  vital  and  spiritual  element 
of  the  Old  Testament  literature.  It  was  through  the 
prophets  that,  as  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
says,  God  spoke  "  by  divers  portions  and  in  divers  manners  " 
to  the  fathers.  We  have  seen  how  the  literary  prophecy 
took  its  rise  and  ran  its  course  in  Israel.^  Its  era  of  about 
three  centuries,  from  near  the  middle  of  the  eighth  to  the 
middle  of  the  fifth  century  b.c,  was  involved  with  that  most 
momentous  era  of  the  people's  history  during  which  they 
suffered  dissolution  as  a  political  state  and  reinstatement  as 
a  church  ;  in  which  reinstatement  the  majority  of  the  people 
were  dispersed  among  the  nations  while  their  religious  and 
educational  capital  remained  at  Jerusalem.  In  all  this  period 
before  the  dispersion  the  main  object  of  prophetic  activity, 
most  clearly  expressed  in  the  Second  Isaiah,  was  to  commit 
the  Jewish  race  to  their  ordained  destiny  as  "  the  Servant  of 
Jehovah,"  a  conscience-bearing  and  missionary  race.  After- 
ward, however,  prophecy,  in  this  more  specific  sense,  gradu- 
ally subsided.  The  people  became  more  interested  in  their 
past  than  in  their  future.  The  lack  of  prophetic  vision,  the 
dearth  of  the  forward  look,  came  to  be  deeply  felt  and  de- 
plored by  the  devout.  "  We  see  not  our  signs,"  mourned  one 
of  the  psalmists  ;  "'  there  is  no  more  any  prophet ;  neither  is 
there  among  us  any  that  knoweth  how  long  "  (Psa.  Ixxiv,  9). 
The   missionary  zeal  had   given  way  to  exclusiveness  and 

1  See  Book  I,  Chapters  IV-VI. 
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GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

racial  pride.  The  age  of  prophecy  had  been  succeeded  by 
an  age  of  Mosaic  legalism,  and  scribal  interpretation,  and 
religious  prescription. 

But  in  all  the  old  literary  prophecies  there  was  a  larger 
strain  of  prediction  than  the  immediate  crisis  or  issue  de- 
inherited  manded.  From  the  specific  message  with  which 
Apocalyptic  he  was  charged,  which  dealt  with  the  troubled 
emen  s  interests  of  his  time,  each  prophet  looked  forward 
to  an  epoch  of  solution  far  beyond,  to  some  aspect  of  a 
coming  golden  age,  or  new  order  of  things,  when  God 
would  bring  judgment  and  deliverance,  when  a  new  spiritual 
covenant  would  be  established,  and  when  God's  ultimate 
purpose  in  the  world  would  be  realized.  We  see  touches  of 
this  peculiar  strain  of  prophecy  in  Joel's  picture  of  the  ".val- 
ley of  decision  "  (Joel  iii,  2,  14-17)  ;  in  Isaiah  and  Micah's 
vision  of  "  the  mountain  of  the  Lord's  house  "  (Isa.  ii,  2-4  ; 
Mic.  iv,  1-3),  and  in  the  apocalyptic  songs  and  chapters 
which  accentuate  the  several  stages  of  the  Vision  of  Isaiah 
(Isa.  xii ;  xxiv-xxvii ;  xxxv)  ;  in  the  vision  of  the  king  reign- 
ing in  righteousness  (Isa,  xxxii,  1-8)  ;  in  Jeremiah's  era  of 
a  new  covenant  (Jer.  xxxi,  31-34  ;  xxxii,  40)  ;  in  Zechariah's 
vision  of  the  fate  of  Jerusalem  (Zech.  xiv,  1-8)  ;  in  Ezekiel's 
vision  of  waters  issuing  from  the  restored  sanctuary  (Ezek. 
xlvii,  1-12)  ;  and  in  numerous  other  passages.  The  culmi- 
nation of  these  is  reached  in  the  Second  Isaiah's  prediction 
of  "new  heavens  and.  a  new  earth"  (Isa.  Ixv,  17-25  ;  Ixvi, 
22,  23).  The  prophecy  of  this  type  is  by  scholars  called 
apocalyptic,  from  the  Greek  word  apokahipsis,  "a  dis- 
closure"; denoting  a  revelation  of  something  before  un- 
known to  men  and  undiscoverable  by  mere  human  intuition.' 
Many  predictions  relating  to  imminent  issues  in  the  national 
or  world-movement  of  things  might  be  like  an  intuitive 
statesmanship  interpreting  historical  and  spiritual  forces ; 
apocalyptic  vision,  however,  could  come  only  from  the  mind 
1  Cf.  above,  pp.  5'3-5i5- 
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THE  RESURGENCE  OF  PROPHECY 

of  God,  revealing  eternal  purposes  beyond  the  scope  of  politi- 
cal or  religious  history.  This  apocalyptic  element  furnishes 
in  all  stages  of  prophecy,  as  it  were  a  background  and  far 
vista,  giving  prophecy  an  enduring  value  when  its  specific  occa- 
sion is  past  and  keeping  the  ultimate  hope  of  Israel  alive. 

While  these  primitive  apocalyptic  elements  were  stored, 
as  it  were,  at  the  back  of  the  people's  mind  as  a  prophecy 
_j^  yet  unfulfilled,  they  were  couched   in  too  broad 

Quickened  and  general  terms  to  have  a  grip  on  men's 
Imagination  jj^i^gination.  They  were  stated,  but  not  pictured  ; 
besides,  they  needed  some  shock  of  sharp  experience  to 
precipitate  them  from  solution.  The  apocalyptic  visualiza- 
tion, as  it  appears,  was  introduced  by  the  Book  of  Daniel 
(cir.  165  B.C.),  which,  written  to  revive  the  people's  hopes 
at  the  time  of  the  Maccabean  crisis  and  persecution,  pur- 
ports to  give  certain  symbolic  visions  vouchsafed  to  Daniel 
in  the  time  of  Nebuchadnezzar  and  his  Medo- Persian  suc- 
cessors. These  visions  relate  to  the  coming  kingdom  of 
heaven,  which  was  destined  to  subdue  and  survive  the  king- 
doms of  the  earth.  They  speak  also  of  "  One  like  unto  a 
son  of  man,"  to  whom  "  was  given  dominion  and  glory,  and 
a  kingdom,  that  all  the  peoples,  nations,  and  languages 
should  serve  him  :  his  dominion  is  an  everlasting  dominion, 
which  shall  not  pass  away,  and  his  kingdom  that  which  shall 
not  be  destroyed"  (Dan.  vii,  13,  14).  To  these  visions  are 
appended  dates,  reckoned  in  cryptic  terms,  for  their  fulfill- 
ment ;  which  dates,  ever  since  they  were  given,  have  roused 
no  end  of  curiosity  and  conjecture.  The  exact  nature  of  the 
issue,  however,  is  left  undefined.  "And  I  heard,"  says  the 
author,  "  but  I  understood  not ;  then  said  I,  '  O,  my  lord, 
what  shall  be  the  issue  of  these  things  ? '  And  he  said, 
'  Go  thy  way,  Daniel  ;  for  the  words  are  shut  up  and  sealed 
till  the  time  of  the  end  '  "  (Dan.  xii,  8,  9). 

With  its  picturesque  and  curiosity-provoking  symbols, 
the  Book  of  Daniel   liberated   to  a   remarkable  degree  the 

[(^57] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

Jewish  imagination  ;  giving  rise  to  a  flowering  of  apocalyptic 
literature,  in  which  was  more  fancy  than  sober  prophecy.  Up 
till  near  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  a.d.  70  this  species  of 
literature  flourished,  furnishing  a  popular  imaginative  release 
from  the  austerities  of  the  law  and  the  potterings  of  the 
scribes.  There  were  vivid  descriptions  of  visits  to  the  unseen 
world,  of  the  doings  of  angels  good  and  bad,  of  the  spectac- 
ular day  of  judgment,  of  the  all-conquering  king,  and  the 
like.  Out  of  it  all  came  one  useful  result,  however :  a  great 
quickening  of  the  popular  imagination  and  such  a  concrete 
expectation  of  the  coming  kingdom  and  its  Messiah  as  pre- 
vious prophecy  had  not  awakened.  It  was  this  expectation, 
with  its  crude  or  fantastic  accompaniments,  which,  as  we 
have  seen,  Jesus  had  at  his  coming  to  meet  and  reduce  to 
sanity  and  correct ;  while  at  the  same  time  all  that  was  sound 
and  permanent  in  it  might  be  retained. 

Such  is  the  honorable  distinction  that  Jesus  gave  to  his 
herald,  John  the  Baptist  (Matt,  xi,  9).  The  Christian  era, 
A  Prophet,  which  John  came  to  announce,  was  rather  one 
and  More  of  fulfillment  than  of  prophecy.  Prophecy's  long 
work  was  done ;  and  God,  who  in  so  many  ways  and  por- 
tions had  spoken  by  the  prophets,  was  now  speaking  by  a 
Son  (Heb.  i,  i).  John  was  more  than  a  prophet,  because 
he  was  the  messenger  of  fulfillment. 

To  give  his  message,  however,  he  paid  little  if  any  atten- 
tion to  the  popular  apocalyptic,  using  as  he  did  merely  the 
current  terms  which  answered  to  the  kindled  expectation  of 
his  time.  He  harked  back  rather  to  the  j^rimitive  austerities 
of  prophecy  :  imitating  Elijah  in  manner,  in  whom  prophetic 
methods  were  typical,  and  making  use  of  the  older  ideas  of 
the  Second  Isaiah  and  Malachi.  On  the  basis  of  these  he 
met.  the  popular  expectation  so  far  as  to  announce,  "The 
kingdom  is  at  hand  ;  .  .  .  after  me  cometh  One  who  is 
mightier  than  I  "  (cf.  Matt,  iii,  2,  11).  Then,  identifying 
Jesus  as  that   Mightier  One,  he  continued  to  demand  the 

[658] 


THE  RESURGENCE  OF  PROPHECY 

repentance  by  which  alone  the  kingdom  could  be  prepared  for, 
until  martyrdom  put  an  end  to  his  preaching.  Jesus  too,  in 
his  turn,  beginning  with  the  same  call  to  repentance,  simpli- 
fied his  message  by  an  appeal  to  and  adoption  of  the  older 
prophecy,  and  setting  himself  to  the  practical  but  at  the 
same  time  spiritual  details  of  fulfillment.  So  it  went  on  till 
near  the  close  of  his  ministry.  Prophecy,  in  its  more  spa- 
cious sense  of  apocalyptic,  would  have  its  due  resurgence, 
but  the  time  had  not  yet  come.  The  mind  of  men  must 
first  be  educated  to  realize  and  believe  it. 

I.  Toward  the  End  of  the  Era 

Among  the  apocalyptic  ideas  prevalent  when  Jesus  entered 
upon  his  ministry  was  naturally  the  thought  that  the  coming 
new  order  of  things  would  be  the  end  of  the  old.  The  great 
event  was  to  be  a  turning  point  in  history,  whereat  one 
era  would  reveal  itself  as  outworn  and  finished  and  another 
would  be  inaugurated  with  the  pomp  and  glory  befitting 
so  momentous  a  change.  To  the  Jewish  imagination  this 
transition  was  to  be  catastrophic.  All  nature  and  history 
would  suddenly  feel  it,  and  in  a  tremendous  revolution  which 
none  could  fail  to  see  the  new  order  of  things  would  emerge. 
To  them  its  meaning  also  was  mainly  political.  The  Roman 
Empire,  now  so  universal  and  despotic,  would  collapse,  and 
the  Jev.'ish  race  with  its  divinely  ordained  religion  and  polity 
would  come  into  its  own  as  the  ruler  of  the  world. 

The  end  of  the  age  would  therefore  be  not  a  decay  and 
death  but  a  consummation  ;  when  spiritual  forces,  long  hid- 
den in  the  old  order  and  suppressed,  would  burst  forth  into 
power  and  glory.  This  idea  of  a  coming  catastrophe  and 
splendor  was  not  peculiar  to  the  Jews.  Among  the  heathen 
also  something  like  it  was  prevalent,  though  of  course  they 
did  not  connect  it  with  the  fortunes  of  the  Jewish  race. 

We  have  seen  that  Jesus'  task  was  to  meet  and  temper 
and  correct  the  ideas  with  which  the  prophetic  soul  of  his 

[659] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

age  was  charged. ^  It  was  his  opportunity,  but  also  his  tre- 
mendous problem,  a  problem  to  be  solved  only  by  super- 
human genius.  And  of  all  the  ideas  then  prevailing,  ideas 
so  beset  with  fancies  and  vagaries  and  so  variously  colored 
with  crude  judgments,  the  grand  culmination  was  this  con- 
cept of  end  and  beginning  :  what  and  of  what  nature  the 
transition  would  be,  and  how  brought  about,  Jesus  must 
accommodate  his  speech  to  its  terms,  must  keep  his  hearers 
with  him  in  the  same  realm  of  imagery,  and  yet  withal 
must  gradually  create  a  new  vocabulary  and  atmosphere 
congruous  with  his  vast  purpose.  Above  all  he  must  begin 
with  the  primal  spiritual  forces  of  human  nature  and  free 
them  from  alloy.  And  nothing  so  re\'eals  his  consummate 
wisdom  as  the  steady,  consistent  way  in  which  throughout 
his  earthly  ministry  he  dealt  with  the  vital  principles  of  his 

problem. 

I 

The  Presage  in  Jesus'  Words.  He  did  not  say  much 
about  the  consummation  of  the  age,  or,  as  it  is  commonly 
translated,  the  end  of  the  world,  until  near  the  close  of  his 
ministry ;  and  then  what  he  said  left  the  matter  as  enig- 
matic in  one  way  as  it  was  clear  in  another.  In  two  of  his 
parables,  indeed,  the  parable  of  the  tares  and  the  parable  of 
the  sweep-net  as  reported  by  Matthew  (Matt,  xiii,  39,  49), 
occurs  the  expression  "the  consummation  of  the  age" 
(siintcleia  ton  aidnos)  ;  but  it  is  to  be  noted  that  in  the  gos- 
pels the  term  is  peculiar  to  Matthew,  who  may  have  used 
it  as  a  term  current  among  Christians  when  his  gospel  was 
written.  In  his  report  of  Jesus'  eschatological  discourse 
the  expression  occurs  again  in  the  disciples'  inquiry,  "  W'liat 
shall  be  the  sign  of  thy  coming,  and  of  the  end  of  the 
world  }  "  (Matt,  xxiv,  3),  where  also  the  word  for  "  coming  " 
{paro2Lsia,  "presence")  is  used  for  the  only  time  in  the 
gospels.     In  Mark's  report  of  the  discourse,  which  being 

^  See  "  The  Christ-Problem,"  pp.  535  ff.  above. 

[660! 


THE  RESURGENCE  OF  PROPHECY 

older  is  presumably  nearer  to  Jesus'  exact  words,  the  ques- 
tion is,  "  When  will  these  things  be  ?  and  what  will  be 
the  sign  when  all  these  things  are  about  to  be  fulfilled?" 
(Mark  xiii,  4).  The  connecting  of  this  discourse  with  the 
consummation  and  the  paroiisia  would  seem  to  have  been 
a  deduction  of  the  early  church,  to  whom  these  ideas  had 
become  a  matter  of  course,  though  Jesus'  actual  words 
may  have  embodied  only  an  indirect  presage.  Still,  a  true 
presage  it  was,  which  from  the  event  with  which  it  was 
immediately  concerned  would,  as  time  went  on,  enlarge 
into  a  prophecy  of  the  greater  consummation  beyond.  For 
the  whole  discourse,  with  its  slightly  variant  forms,  see  Matt. 
xxiv,  Mark  xiii,  Luke  xxi  ;  that  of  Mark  being  probably  the 
most  primitive. 

The   occasion   of  this  eschatological   discourse   of  Jesus 

seems  at  first  thought  to  have  been  casual  enough.    After 

a  day  of  teaching  in  the  Temple,  as  he  went  forth 

Its  Occasion  /      ,^  r   ^,-  ,  ,  •  r     i 

to  the  Mount  of  Olives,  whence  the  view  of  the 
edifice  appeared  in  greatest  grandeur,  one  of  the  disciples 
called  his  attention  to  the  wonders  of  its  architecture.  It 
was,  indeed,  as  rebuilt  by  Herod,  the  pride  and  boast  of  the 
Jews,  who  doubtless  were  as  confident  of  its  permanence  as 
they  had  been  in  the  days  of  Jeremiah  (see  Jer.  vii,  1-15). 
But  he  had  already  cleansed  the  Temple  court  of  its 
traders  and  exchangers  (Mark  xi,  15-18;  John  ii,  14-20), 
using  Jeremiah's  words  of  reproof  because  it  had  become 
so  worldly  and  commercialized  (cf.  Jer.  vii,  11).  It  was  his 
symbolic  way  of  saying,  as  was  said  later,  that  judgment 
must  "begin  at  the  house  of  God"  (i  Pet.  iv,  17).  And 
now  his  answer  to  the  disciples'  admiration  is,  "  Seest  thou 
these  great  buildings  ?  there  shall  not  be  left  here  one 
stone  upon  another,  which  shall  not  be  thrown  down " 
(Mark  xiii,  2). 

Such  a  prediction  about  the  Temple,  and  especially  any 
implied  disparagement  of  it,  would  be  to  the  Jews  almost 

[661] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

equivalent  to  blasphemy.  We  see  this  in  the  way  they 
mocked  him  when  he  hung  upon  the  cross  (Mark  xiv,  58  ; 
XV,  29),  and  in  the  charge  they  brought  against  him  at  his 
trial,  —  a  distorted  reminiscence  of  his  words  when  he  first 
cleansed  the  Temple,  as  recorded  in  the  fourth  gospel  (see 
John  ii,  19,  20).  The  truth  is,  Jesus'  attitude  toward  the 
Temple  service  touched  the  nation  in  a  vital  spot.  It  re- 
minded them,  to  their  discomfort,  that  they  could  not  play 
fast  and  loose  with  conscience  ;  their  long  heritage  was  too 
precious  to  be  thus  made  sterile. 

Jesus'  prophecy  of  events  to  come,  called  forth  by  his 
remark  about  the  Temple,  was  both  specific  and  general. 
Its  The  specific  event  which  was  immediately  identi- 

Substance  f^g^j  ^yjj-]^  ^-j^g  destruction  of  the  Temple  was  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem  and  the  break-up  of  the  Jewish 
state,  which  occurred  under  Vespasian,  when  his  son  and 
general  Titus  besieged  and  demolished  both  city  and  Temple 
A.D.  yo,  forty  years  after  these  words  were  uttered.  Of 
this  event  which,  to  the  consciousness  of  disciples  still  un- 
educated in  Christian  experience,  would  be  equivalent  to  the 
end  of  the  age,  the  prophecy,  "This  generation  shall  not 
pass  away  until  all  these  things  shall  be  accomplished  " 
(Mark  xiii,  30)  came  literally  to  pass.  The  Hebrew  and 
Jewish  order  of  things,  of  which  the  Temple  was  the  central 
symbol,  was  doomed,  and  that  was  the  only  order  they  could 
yet  realize. 

But  all  Jesus'  descriptions  of  that  catastrophe  were  preg- 
nant with  a  larger  and  more  spiritual  meaning.  The  event 
would  be,  as  it  were,  the  clearing  of  the  ground  for  the 
building  of  an  order  whose  meanings  would  be  universal 
and  eternal.  This  larger  prophecy  is  blended  with  the  more 
specific,  so  that  many  terms  of  the  two  are  interchangeable; 
but  it  still  has  to  be  expressed  in  conceptions  which  the 
disciples  can  understand.  ""After  that  tribulation,"  Jesus 
says,  they  shall   '"  see  the  Son  of  Man  coming  in  clouds 

[662] 


THE  RESURGENCE  OF  PROPHECY 

with  great  power  and  glory  "  (Mark  xiii,  24-26).  It  is  the 
same  prediction  that  he  makes  two  or  three  days  later,  in 
his  confession  of  his  Messiahship  to  the  high  priest  (see 
Mark  xiv,  61,  62).  It  is  put  in  apocalyptic  terms,  accom- 
panied by  such  portents  of  nature  as  the  older  prophets  had 
associated  with  world  events ;  it  visualizes  things,  for  those 
conceptions  are  not  yet  of  the  spirit  but  of  the  imagination. 
That  is  the  mold  in  which  the  current  idea  of  future  things 
has  shaped  itself.  Its  substance,  which  later  events  have 
progressively  verified,  is  that  the  personality  of  Jesus,  identi- 
fied with  the  idealized  Christ,  is  destined  to  be  the  re-living 
and  triumphant  power  of  the  world  and  of  the  ages.  "  And 
then  shall  he  send  forth  the  angels,  and  shall  gather  together 
his  elect  from  the  four  winds,  from  the  uttermost  part  of  the 
earth  to  the  uttermost  part  of  heaven  "  (Mark  xiii,  27).  The 
completed  event  will  be  one  in  which  not  the  shifting  history 
of  a  state  or  nation  alone  but  earth  and  heaven,  human  and 
divine,  present  and  hereafter,  will  be  involved  and  united. 


In  the  Light  of  Common  Day.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  to 
neither  of  the  questions  raised  by  the  disciples  (Mark  xiii,  4) 
does  Jesus  return  a  specific  answer.  He  neither  tells  them 
when  these  things  will  be  nor  what  shall  be  the  sign.  It 
is  another  instance  of  what  we  have  noticed  in  all  the  large 
forecasts  of  the  future  :  a  foreshortened  prophecy,  in  which 
the  essential  is  kept  clear  from  the  incidental.  To  the 
former  question  his  answer  is,  "  Of  that  day  and  hour  know- 
eth  no  one  ;  not  even  the  angels  in  heaven,  neither  the 
Son,  but  the  Father"  (Mark  xiii,  32).  To  the  latter  ques- 
tion he  replies  not  by  a  sign  but  by  an  analogy,  such  an 
analogy  as  the  wise  can  gather  from  the  familiar  phenomenon 
of  the  fig-tree,  "  when  her  branch  is  now  become  tender,  and 
putteth  forth  its  leaves,"  —  the  natural  prophecy  of  summer 
(Mark  xiii,  28,  29).    It  is  an  appeal  to  men's  clarified  spiritual 

[663] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

sense.  Meanwhile  his  call  is  not  to  speculations  but  to  prac- 
tical insight  and  duties.  The  disciples  are  to  beware  of  false 
Christs  and  deceivers  ;  are  to  distrust  any  who  say,  "  Lo, 
here  is  the  Christ"  or  "  Lo,  there";  are  to  take  trials  as 
they  come,  and  discount  them  as  in  the  necessary  order  of 
things  ;  are  to  be  faithful  stewards  of  their  divinely  given 
trust ;  and  are  to  be  always  ready.  ' '  And  what  I  say  unto 
you  I  say  unto  all,  Watch  "  (Mark  xiii,  37). 

These  sane  and  steadying  counsels  became  the  staple  of 
the  apostolic  teaching  (see,  for  example,  St.  Paul's  earliest 
epistles,  those  to  the  Thessalonians).  Their  influence  shaped 
the  personal  character  which  made  the  early  Christian  com- 
munities a  notable  contrast  to  the  world  around  them.  When 
we  reflect  that  the  gospels  as  we  have  them  were  not 
written  till  after  the  Pauline  and  other  epistles,  the  evident 
effect  here  noted  provokes  the  conclusion  that  this  prophecy 
of  Jesus  must  have  been  circulated  and  well  known  from 
the  time  it  was  uttered.  It  is,  indeed,  thought  to  have  been 
current  among  the  churches  as  a  kind  of  tract  apart  from 
the  gospels  in  which  we  read  it,  and  to  have  been  incor- 
porated in  the  completed  gospels  afterward.^ 

II.  The  Revelation  of  John 

The  resurgence  of  prophecy  in  its  most  pronounced 
apocalyptic  ^  form  is  evidenced  in  the  last  book  of  the  Bible, 
written  late  in  the  first  century  a.d.,  and  entitled  "The  Reve- 
lation {apokalnpsis)  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  God  gave  him, 
to  show  unto  his  servants  things  which  must  shortly  come 
to  pass."  It  was  written  by  "  his  servant  John,"  an  exile  in 
Patmos  ;  but  whether  this  was  the  apostle  John  the  son  of 
Zebedee  is  uncertain.  It  is  written  in  a  vein  somewhat  similar 
to  that  of  the  fourth  gospel  and  the  I'^pistles  of  John,  which 
fact  has  caused  a  general  belief  that  the  same  author  wrote  all 

1  See  Burkitt,  "  The  Gospel  History  and  its  Transmission,"  pp.  62,  63. 

2  Yox  the  beginnings  of  apocalyptic  prophecy,  see  above,  p.  147,  note  2. 

[664] 


THE  RESURGENCE  OF  PROPHECY 

the  works  at  different  periods  of  his  hfe.  Like  the  gospel, 
it  views  Jesus  as  the  unique  Son  of  God  ;  and  Hke  the  uni- 
form Christian  teachings  it  regards  him  as  not  yet  come  in 
the  fullness  of  his  kingdom  and  power,  but  as  revealing  in 
mystic  and  symbolic  language  the  manner  and  accompani- 
ments of  his  coming,  and  the  final  things  after  the  turmoils 
and  tribulations  of  history  are  over. 

Note.  Its  Supposed  Relationship  to  Johti's  Works.  Browning 
thus  explains  its  relation,  as  purely  reported  prophecy,  to  the  general 

teaching  of  the  evangelist  John,  whom  he  regards  as  its  author : 

1 
Since  I,  whom  Christ's  mouth  taught,  was  bidden  teach, 
I  went,  for  many  years,  about  the  world, 
Saying,  "  It  was  so  ;  so  I  heard  and  saw," 
Speaking  as  the  case  asked  :  and  men  believed. 
Afterward  came  the  message  to  myself 
In  Patmos  isle  ;   I  was  not  bidden  teach, 
But  simply  listen,  take  a  book  and  write, 
Nor  set  down  other  than  the  given  word, 
With  nothing  left  to  my  arbitrament 
To  choose  or  change :  I  wrote,  and  men  believed.^ 

I 

The  Apocalyptic  Warrant.  Like  its  prototype  the  Book 
of  Daniel,  the  Revelation  of  John  comes  from  a  time  of 
fierce  persecution  ;  and  one  object  of  it  doubtless  was  to 
stay  and  comfort  the  oppressed  church  with  a  sure  convic- 
tion of  hope  and  triumph.  But  this  is  far  from  giving  its 
whole  or  its  main  purpose.  Its  warrant  lay  in  the  bosom 
of  the  church  itself,  which  was  filled  with  tendencies  that 
needed  to  be  corrected  and  clarified. 

In  the  general  expectation  of  Christ's  coming,  or  parousia, 
there  were  many  elements  yet  unexplained  and  in  danger  of 
From  Pres-  atrophy  through  unbelief.  The  Second  Epistle 
ent  Perils  of  Peter,  written  under  conditions  similar  to 
those  of  the  Revelation,  mentions  the  godless  mockers  of 
the  time  as  saying,  "'  Where  is  the  promise  of  his  coming  .-* 

1  Browning,  "A  Death  in  the  Desert,"  11.  135-144. 
[66s] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

for,  from  the  day  that  the  fathers  fell  asleep,  all  things  con- 
tinue as  they  were  from  the  beginning  of  the  creation  " 
(2  Pet.  iii,  4).  This  would  seem  to  point  to  a  widespread 
prevalence  of  the  sentiment  that  Christianity  was  not  the 
radical  regenerative  power  it  was  meant  to  be  ;  in  modern 
terms,  was  not  "  making  good."  This  sentiment  would  nat- 
urally be  made  much  of  by  the  foes  and  critics  of  the  new 
life,  who  could  judge  it  only  from  without.  But  also  within 
the  Christian  community  were  dangers  of  much  the  same 
kind,  which  threatened  the  purity  and  even  the  existence 
of  the  distinctive  Christian  life.  Such  dangers  had  been 
warned  against  in  the  letters  to  Timothy  (i  Tim,  i,  20; 
2  Tim.  ii,  17,  18);  and  men  had  been  singled  out  by  name 
whose  word,  as  was  said,  would  "eat  as  doth  a  gangrene." 
The  First  Epistle  of  John,  as  we  have  noted, ^  was  largely 
concerned  to  oppose  two  such  perils  (essentially  rather  than 
by  name)  :  that  of  the  Nicolaitans,  who  used  their  Christian 
profession  as  a  cloak  for  licentiousness;  and  that  of  Cerinthus, 
whom,  because  he  denied  that  the  Christ  of  the  flesh  could 
be  divine,  the  epistle  brands  as  antichrist. 

The  general  tendency  of  these  corrupting  influences 
seems  to  have  been  twofold  :  to  undifferentiate  the  Christian 
character,  merging  it  in  the  sensuality  and  immorality  of  the 
world  ;  and  to  make  men  dead  to  the  value,  and  even  the 
belief,  of  Christ's  parousia.  The  presence  of  these  evil  ten- 
dencies is  apparent  in  the  messages  to  the  Seven  Churches 
which  John  prefixes  to  his  Revelation  (chapters  ii  and  iii)  ; 
some  of  which  he  warns  against  Nicolaitan  and  similar 
infections  (for  example,  Pergamum,  ii,  i  5  and  cf.  Ephesus, 
vs.  6  ;  Thyatira,  ii,  20),  and  others  he  rebukes  for  being  spirit- 
ually dead  or  lukewarm  (Sardis,  iii,  i  ;  Ephesus,  ii,  4  ;  Laodi- 
cea,  iii,  15).  To  men  of  such  tendency  the  sharp  persecution 
which  called  forth  the  Apocalypse  would  be  less  a  calamity 
than  a  providence,  testing  the  real  fiber  of  their  Christian 

1  See  above,  p.  653. 
[666] 


THE  RESURGENCE  OF  PROPHECY 

allegiance  ;  and  a  prophecy  which  would  concentrate  their 
life  anew  on  the  supreme  issues  of  Christ's  coming  would 
be  fully  warranted  by  prevailing  conditions.  Such  a  prophecy 
was  the  Revelation  of  John. 

But  there  was  more  in  the  function  of  such  a  prophecy 
than  to  be  a  prophylactic  against  encroaching  evils ;  so  much 
From  inher-  niore  that  this  is  only  incidental.  In  the  literature 
ited  Ideas  of  prophecy  which  the  Christians  had  inherited 
from  Old  Testament  times  there  was  still  a  vast  amount  yet 
unfilled  and  unidentified.  Its  glowing  oracles,  its  symbols, 
its  realistic  portrayals  of  a  new  order  of  things,  were  largely 
inert  and  unvalued,  like  so  much  useless  lumber ;  and  this 
state  of  things  was  aggravated  by  the  general  apathy  that 
was  invading  the  church.  Something  had  been  done  by  such 
works  as  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  to  apply  the  prophetic 
values  of  the  old  regime  ;  but  much  remained  to  be  done. 
A  new  prophecy  was  needed  to  validate  the  old. 

Especially  was  this  true  of  the  most  sweeping  and  com- 
prehensive prophecy  of  all  :  the  Second  Isaiah's  prophecy  of 
new  heavens  and  a  new  earth  (Isa.  Ixv,  17-25  ;  Ixvi,  22,  23). 
The  time  was  passing  and  wickedness  was  increasing,  with 
less  and  less  likelihood  of  its  fulfillment.  The  author  of 
Second  Peter,  whom  we  may  regard  as  a  kind  of  under- 
study of  the  Johannine  epistles,  felt  acutely  the  reproaches 
which  such  unfulfilled  promises  were  eliciting.  He  reiterates 
the  primitive  Christian  conviction  that  Christ's  parousia  will 
be  accompanied  by  fiery  destruction  and  judgment  (2  Pet. 
iii,  7).  He  explains  its  delay  by  the  idea  that  "  one  day  is 
with  the  Lord  as  a  thousand  years,  and  a  thousand  years  are 
as  one  day  "  (2  Pet.  iii,  8).  But  as  the  upshot  of  it  all,  deny- 
ing slackness  on  the  part  of  the  Lord,  he  plants  his  faith  on 
Isaiah's  crowning  prophecy:  "But,  according  to  his  promise, 
we  look  for  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth,  wherein  dwelleth 
righteousness"  (2  Pet.  iii,  13).  All  the  vicissitudes  of  his- 
tory and  nature  are  but  preliminary  to  this.    And  this,  as  the 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

final  and  crowning  prophecy  of  the  Apocalypse,  the  calm 
consummation  after  all  its  visualized  turmoils  and  storms, 
evinces  the  abundant  warrant  for  its  existence.  It  is  not 
only  a  prophecy  in  itself  ;  it  is  a  summary  and  concentration 
of  prophecy,  as  this  has  accumulated  through  ages  of  histpry 
and  literature. 

II 

Its  Symbolism,  Inherited  and  Initiated.  The  Book  of 
Revelation  takes  us  over  into  the  prophetic  realm,  which  of 
itself  requires  an  educated  and  spiritualized  sense  to  realize ; 
and  withal  it  is  prophecy  of  a  specific  kind,  namely,  pro- 
phetic vision.  It  aims  to  portray  the  ultimate  meanings  of 
Biblical  evolution  in  terms  of  the  visible  and  audible. 

A  vision,  to  be  made  intelligible  to  others,  must  be  visual- 
ized, ^lat  is,  put  into  terms  of  sense  perception  ;  for  it  is  by 
the  organs  of  sense  that  men  in  the  flesh  communicate  with 
one  another.  But  beyond  the  sensible  image  there  is  an  inner 
meaning,  which  can  be  apprehended  only  as  the  vision 
awakens  in  the  one  to  whom  it  is  told  a,  spiritual  state  simi- 
lar to  that  of  the  teller.  If  the  hearer  has  no  such  suscepti- 
bility to  receive,  the  vision,  is  to  him  only  a  grotesque  and  a 
monstrosity  ;  it  is  like  trying  to  appreciate  music  without  a 
musical  ear,  or  color  when  one  is  color-blind.  In  other 
words,  the  visual  image  is  a  symbol.  It  directs  the  mind 
inward  to  a  spiritual  truth  or  principle  so  analogous  to  the 
material  phenomenon  that  in  those  who  have  the  proper 
susceptibility  the  one  elicits  the  other. 

A  prophetic  vision  is  thus  like  Jesus'  parables  on  a  larger 
scale.  He  spoke  these  to  the  "outsiders,"  as  he  said,  in 
order  that  they  might  see  and  yet  not  see  (cf.  Mark  iv, 
II,  I2).i  To  unlock  their  meaning  men  must  have  the  fit- 
ting spiritual  combination  ;  or,  as  he  expressed  it,  ""  He  that 
hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear"  (Matt,  xi,  15  ;  xiii,  9,  16). 
1  See  above,  p.  549. 
[668] 


THE  RESURGENCE  OF  PROPHECY 

In  the  same*  manner,  of  all  the  messages  to  the  seven 
churches  in  Asia  the  author  of  the  Revelation  says,  "  He 
who  hath  an  ear  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  saith  to  the 
churches  "  (Rev.  ii,  7,  ii,  17,  29  ;  iii,  6,  13,  22)  ;  and  of  a 
particularly  enigmatic  oracle  he  says,  "  Let  him  who  hath 
understanding  count  the  number  of  the  beast ;  for  it  is  the 
number  of  a  man  "  (Rev.  xiii,  18)  ;  just  as  of  a  mysterious 
reference  to  Daniel  in  his  prophetic  discourse  Jesus  said, 
"Let  him  that  readeth  understand"  (Mark  xiii,  14).  The 
symbolism,  like  the  ancient  mysteries,  is  for  the  initiated. 

The  symbolic  visions  of  Revelation,  however,  are  by  no 
means  run-wild  or  arbitrary.  They  have  their  roots  in  the 
literature  and  traditions  which  from  time  immemorial  have 
been  the  education  of  Jews  and  Christians  ;  who  are  already 
at  home  in  its  conceptions  and  vocabulary.  'Their  design, 
indeed,  is  not  to  propound  a  mystery  but  to  clear  it  up  :  the 
mystery  which,  as  St.  Paul  says,  "'  hath  been  hid  for  ages 
and  generations  :  but  now  is  made  manifest  to  his  saints,  .  .  . 
which  is  Christ  in  you,  the  hope  of  glory  "  (Col.  i,  26,  27). 
To  the  sharing  of  such  visions  there  is  no  arbitrary  bar. 
It  requires  only  what  is  promised  to  all  Christians  :  the 
endowment  of  the  Spirit  and  consciousness  of  Christ. 

When  at  the  outset  of  his  disclosure  John  writes,  '"  After 
these  things  I  saw,  and  behold,  a  door  opened  in  heaven  " 
Figurative  (Rcv.  iv,  i),  we  have  no  warrant  for  deeming 
and  Literal  |-j^ig  ^  literal  view  into  the  arcana  of  the  universe, 
as  it  were  into  sensible  phenomena.  To  interpret  it  so  vul- 
garizes it  into  a  peep  show,  on  a  level  with  alleged  psychic 
disclosures,  and  raises  interminable  difficulties,  from  which 
the  too  literal -minded  and  materialized  church  has  suffered 
much.  Besides,  the  whole  tenor  of  scripture  thought  is 
against  it.  In  remarkable  contrast  to  the  speculations  of 
other  religions,  the  Scripture  prophets  and  apostles  are  reti- 
cent about  the  literal  aspects  of  the  unseen  and  the  here- 
after.   St.  Paul  relates  (2  Cor.  xii,  2-4)  that  he  once  knew 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

a  man  who  was  caught  up  to  the  third  heaven  ;  but  no  descrip- 
tion is  attempted  of  what  he  saw,  and  what  he  heard  was 
"'  unspeakable  words  which  it  is  not  lawful  for  a  man  to 
utter "  ;  he  was  uncertain,  indeed,  whether  the  man  who 
saw  and  heard  (he  means  of  course  himself)  was  in  the  body 
or  out  of  it.  This  well  represents  the  sane  and  reverent 
attitude  of  the  Christian  mind  toward  another  state  of  being. 
Its  quickened  spiritual  sense  represses  a  vulgar  curiosity. 

Note.  The  Finer  View.  Tennyson,  in  "  In  Memoriam,"xxxi-xxxiii, 
notes  this  reticence  in  the  case  of  Lazarus,  and  the  lack  of  curiosity  on 
the  part  of  Mary,  with  their  effects  on  rehgious  faith.  Of  her  postulated 
question  to  Lazarus, 

"  Where  wert  thou,  brother,  those  four  days  ? " 
(of.  John  xi.  39)  the  poet  remarks. 

There  lives  no  record  of  reply 

Which  telling  what  it  is  to  die 
Had  surely  added  praise  to  praise  .  .  . 
Behold  a  man  raised  up  by  Christ ! 

The  rest  remaineth  unreveal'd  ; 

He  told  it  not,  or  something  seal'd 
The  lips  of  that  Evangelist. 

The  same  reticence  is  shown  with  regard  to  the  Supreme 
Being.  The  circumstances  of  the  vision  may  require  that 
He  be  identified,  as  is  the  case  in  the  visions  of  Isaiah, 
Ezekiel,  and  the  Apocalyptist ;  but  Isaiah  sees  only  His 
skirts  filling  the  Temple  (Isa.  vi,  i)  ;  Ezekiel  describes  only 
a  mystic  human  form  in  terms  of  fire  and  color  (Ezek.  i, 
26,  27)  ;  and  John,  when  he  first  mentions  the  occupant 
of  the  "  great  white  throne,"  describes  Him  merely  as  re- 
sembling precious  stones  (Rev.  iv,  3),  and  later  as  One 
"  from  whose  face  the  earth  and  (he  heavens  fled  away  " 
(Rev.  XX,  II).  Evidently  it  is  not  intended  that  the  pic- 
tured scenery  and  activities  of  the  unseen  state  of  being 
should  be  taken  literally. 

But  this  does  not  imply  that  these  things  are  unreal. 
They  deal  rather  with  the  inner  truth  of  things  than  with 

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THE  RESURGENCE  OF  PROPHECY 

their  visualized  appearance.  The  fact  that  they  are  described 
in  symbol  is  a  virtual  confession  that  they  are  so  crowded 
with  spiritual  meanings  that  no  one  sensible  object  and  no 
single  figure  can  express  them.  Take  as  illustration  one  of 
the  simplest,  the  first  description  of  the  Son  of  Man  in 
glory  (Rev.  i,  13-16).  The  form,  in  its  splendor  of  light 
and  flame,  is  not  greatly  unlike  what  the  three  disciples 
saw  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration  (cf.  Mark  ix,  3).  But 
when  there  are  added  stars  in  his  hand,  and  a  sword  com- 
ing from  his  mouth  (cf.  Isa.  xi,  4  ;  xlix,  2),  we  must  have 
recourse  to  symbol  to  preserve  its  verisimilitude.  The  same 
may  be  said  of  the  Lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  identical 
with  the  Lamb  "as  it  had  been  slain,"  who  prevailed  to  open 
the  seals  of  the  book  (Rev.  v,  5,  6).  As  symbol  it  is  sub- 
lime and  luminously  significant ;  and  only  so.  To  go  on  with 
other  familiar  symbols,  like  the  great  white  throne,  the  city 
four-square,  the  streets  of  gold,  the  gates  of  pearl,  the  river 
of  the  water  of  life,  the  book  of  life,  is  to  reach  the  same 
result.  Not  only  do  we  know  what  they  mean,  but  they 
raise  in  our  minds  a  sense  of  sublimity,  purity,  and  per- 
fection of  being,  such  as  no  literal  words  could  express, 
and  perhaps  no  other  figures.  To  deem  the  book  unreal 
because  it  is  symbolical  is  but  to  confess  one's  own  spiritual 
density  and  limitation. 

It  is  important  to  keep  in  mind  that  this  Book  of  Revelation 
stands  at  the  end,  the  culminating  point,  of  the  Bible.  A  world- 
Symbol  and  long  history  has  preceded  it,  and  a  coordinated 
History  literature  many  centuries  in  the  making  —  history 

and  literature  charged  throughout  with  prophetic  values.  It 
leaves  us  with  a  new  chapter  of  history  opened,  in  which 
the  same  spiritual  forces  here  revealed  are  going  on  to  new 
conquests  and  triumphs  until  the  last  great  battle  is  fought 
and  the  Christ  is  fully  come.  Generations  and  ages  are  yet 
to  inscribe  their  names  and  deeds  in  a  new  Book  of  Life 
(cf.  Rev.  XX,  12)  ;  for  the  end  of  the  Bible  is  not  conceived 

[671] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO   BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

as  an  end  but  as  a  beginning.  That  an  author  like  John 
should  thus  take  his  stand  between  the  old  and  the  new,  at 
once  summarizing  and  forecasting  such  a  vast  world  move- 
ment, nothing  less  or  other  than  a  most  intrepid  symbolism, 
like  a  crowded  yet  creative  stenograph}',  could  suffice.  His 
ideas  must  be  projected  on  an  immense  scale  ;  must  cover 
a  limitless  range ;  must  withal  have  the  unity  and  consistency 
of  one  work  of  literary  art.    It  is  a  stupendous  undertaking. 

Accordingly,  he  writes  as  an  heir  of  the  literary  ages 
before  him.  The  Revelation  of  John  may  be  regarded  as 
a  clearing  house  of  the  symbolic  language  which  has  been 
used  to  convoy  the  history  of  God's  work  and  purpose 
hitherto.  Several  of  the  old  prophets,  notably  Ezekiel, 
Zechariah,  and  Daniel,  have  employed  the  idiom  freely ; 
not  to  speak  of  the  numerous  apocalyptic  touches  scattered 
through  all  the  Old  Testament  prophecy  and  poetry.  The 
Book  of  Isaiah,  as  we  have  seen,  resolves  itself  into  a  "  vision  " 
(Isa.  i,  1)  of  a  whole  prophetic  era,  beginning  with  a  people 
on  the  verge  of  doom  and  ending  with  the  promise  of 
new  heavens  and  a  new  earth.  There  is  this  to  be  noted, 
however,  of  the  Old  Testament  symbolism  :  it  is  nearer  to 
the  literal,  it  works  itself  out  in  terms  of  historic  forces 
and  redeeming  personalities  here  on  this  earth.  It  belongs 
rather  to  the  era  of  prophecy  than  of  fulfillment,  to  a  state 
of  things  confessedly  unfinal.  And  so,  along  with  its  reli- 
gious values  may  be  read  the  practical  values  of  statesman- 
ship, social  righteousness,  and  law ;  with  all  of  which  the 
symbolism  is  vitally  involved. 

All  these  survive  and  find  their  place  in  this  clearing 
house  of  symbolic  values.  Many  of  John's  images  are 
modeled  on  imagery  already  made  familiar  in  prophetic 
history.  The  four  living  creatures,  the  dragon,  the  mon- 
strous beast,  the  enslaving  harlot,  the  field  of  Armageddon, 
Gog  and  Magog,  reappear  and  have  their  ordained  function 
in  this  summarizing  book.    But  not  only  are  these  inherited 

[^72] 


THE  RESURGENCE  OF  PROPHECY 

symbols  endowed  with  a  larger  and  broader  meaning.  To 
them  the  author  adds  also  a  rich  store  of  new  symbolism 
suited  to  the  new  field  of  prophecy  here  opening.  For  he  is 
concerned  with  the  principles  and  events  of  unseen  and  eter- 
nal realms  ;  his  history  moves  in  both  earth  and  heaven  ;  and 
to  it  not  human  powers  and  personalities  alone  are  adequate, 
but  only  the  divine-human  power  and  personality  of  Jesus 
Christ.  In  him  all  centers  and  culminates,  not  in  any  lower 
agency  or  dignity  however  celestial.  When  the  conflicts  are 
over  and  the  redeemed  raise  their  song  of  salvation,  John 
is  moved  to  worship  the  angel  who  has  commissioned  him 
to  write.  "  And  I  fell  at  his  feet  to  worship  him.  And  he 
saith  unto  me,  '  See  thou  do  it  not ;  I  am  a  fellow-servant 
with  thee  and  with  thy  brethren  that  hold  the  testimony 
of  Jesus ;  worship  God  ;  for  the  testimony  of  Jesus  is  the 
spirit  of  prophecy'  "  (Rev.  xix,  lo). 

Ill 

The  Reality  within  the  Symbol.  One  consequence  of 
the  enigmatic  character  of  the  Revelation  is  that  no  other 
book  of  the  Bible  has  so  provoked  speculation  as  to  the 
literal  reality  underlying  its  daring  symbolism.  What,  in 
identifiable  terms,  were  the  things  which  John  said  "  must 
shortly  come  to  pass  "  .-•  The  book  has  been  the  feeding 
ground  of  countless  inquiries  and  conjectures,  many  of  them 
deeply  erudite  and  ingenious,  all  more  or  less  futile.  Their 
fallacy  lies  in  their  own  cultural  or  personal  equation.  Either 
they  seek  to  imprison  its  meanings  in  the  particular  genera- 
tion for  which  the  prophet  wrote  or  else  some  later  histori- 
cal condition  bulks  so  large  in  their  interpretative  system 
that  the  prophecy,  however  remote  its  composition,  seems 
to  have  been  made  especially  for  it.  The  former  view 
cramps  and  specializes  the  book  too  narrowly  to  its  own 
age.  The  latter  lays  it  open  to  wild  theories,  putting  it  at 
the  mercy  of  speculative  cranks.    Against  both  St.  Peter's 

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GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

judicious  words  about  the  uses  of  prophecy  may  be  cited  : 
"We  have  also,"  he  says,  "a  ^rer  word  of  prophecy; 
whereto  ye  do  well  to  take  heed,  as  to  a  lamp  which  shineth 
in  a  dark  place,  until  the  day  dawn,  and  the  day-star  arise 
in  your  hearts  ;  knowing  this  first,  that  no  prophecy  of  the 
scripture  may  be  privately  interpreted.  For  prophecy  came 
not  at  any  time  by  the  will  of  man ;  but  men,  being  moved  by 
the  Holy  Spirit,  spoke  from  God  "  ^  (2  Pet.  i,  19-21).  This 
seems  clearly  to  indicate  the  large  scale  and  scope  of  prophecy. 
It  is  not  confinable  to  one  man's  or  one  generation's  range 
of  vision  or  to  any  particular  crisis  of  affairs.  The  fact  that 
God  is  speaking  through  men  makes  its  meanings  vital  as 
broadly  as  His  Spirit  works.     And  this  range  is  illimitable. 

It  is  in  the  epistles  to  the  Seven  Churches  (Rev.  ii,  iii), 
which  are  prefixed  to  the  distinctively  apocalyptic  body  of 
The  immedi-  the  book,  that  wc  get  nearest  to  the  reality  within 
ate  Purview  ^^g  symbol.^  In  that  section  the  writer,  in  the 
pastoral  feeling,  avails  himself  of  the  prevailing  letter  form, 
though  with  rather  elaborate  literary  treatment ;  and  in  giving 
to  each  church  counsel  accurately  adapted  to  its  situation 
and  needs  conveys  as  a  whole  "  an  epitome  of  the  Uni- 
versal Church  and  of  the  whole  range  of  human  life."  The 
churches  in  question,  which  are  hardly  separated  in  thought 
from  the  cities  themselves,  have  each  their  special  perils 
from  corrupting  influences  within  and  from  their  environ- 
ment in  the  world  ;  and  it  is  predicted  that  some  of  them 
must  pass  through  sharp  trials  (see,  for  example,  ii,  10),  in 
which  their  patience  and  fidelity  will  be  tested.  What  these 
trials  are,  however,  appears  only  vaguely. 

The  real  situation  underlying  the  elaborate  symbolism  of 
the  book  and  its  immediate  occasion  appears  more  definitely 
in  the  apocalypse  itself,  though  at  this  distance  of  time  it 
is   not  easily  identifiable   in   its   details,  as  it  could   be  by 

1  Translation  of  "  The  Corrected  English  New  Testament." 

2  See  Ramsay,  "  The  Letters  to  the  Seven  Churches,"  Chapter  IV. 

[674] 


THE  RESURGENCE  OF  PROPHECY 

contemporaries  who  were  wise  to  interpret  the  signs  of  the 
times.  It  was  a  period  of  persecution  —  when  the  Roman 
Empire,  in  the  person  of  some  of  its  infamous  emperors, 
,  was  stirred  against  the  Christians  and  sought  to  extirpate 
them  or  force  them  to  heathenism.  Such  hostihties  were 
begun  by  Nero  a.d.  64,  in  a  poHcy  of  persecution  which 
remained  in  force  with  greater  or  less  severity  through  the 
century,  attaining  its  greatest  fierceness  under  Nero  himself 
in  the  few  years  succeeding  64  and  under  Domitian  in  the 
last  decade  of  the  century.^  The  legislated  deification  of 
the  Roman  emperors,  which  characterized  this  period  and 
which  filled  the  provinces  with  the  temples,  customs,  and 
coinage  of  this  blasphemous  cult,  would  of  itself  make 
the  lot  of  the  Christians  a  hard  one.  St.  John,  their  most 
conspicuous  leader  in  Asia  Minor,  wrote  the  book  as  a 
persecuted  exile  in  the  island  of  Patmos  (Rev.  i,  9),  but 
whether  he  has  in  mind  the  trials  under  Nero  or  under 
Domitian  is  uncertain.  The  generally  strained  and  perilous 
situation  for  Christendom  and  the  call  for  patience,  watch- 
fulness, and  courage,  the  virtues  inculcated  in  the  presage 
of  Jesus'  words,  were  the  same  in  either  case. 

The  writer's  immediate  purview,  however,  touches  only 
one  point  of  the  immense  reality  which  forms  the  subject 
The  Cuimi-  of  his  prophccy.  His  real  theme  is  the  ultimate 
nating  Event  triumph  of  the  Messianic  kingdom  of  God,  which 
had  been  dimly  foreshadowed  by  Daniel  and  the  Jewish 
Apocalyptists,  and  which  had  been  evolving  since  the 
foundation  of  the  world  (cf.  i  Pet.  i,  19,  20 ;  Matt,  xxv,  34). 
In  countless  symbolic  references  and  allusions  drawn  from 
the  vast  store  of  heathen,  Jewish,  and  Christian  imagery,  the 
mighty  conflict  is  depicted,  as  in  a  world-epic,  and  con- 
centrated in  a  tremendous  battle  of  world-forces,  typified  on 
the  one  side  by  the  Roman  Empire  and  on  the  other  by  the 
Church  of  Christ.  This  was  the  reality,  as  expressed  in 
^  See  Swete,  "  The  Apocalypse  of  John,"  pp.  Ixxxi-xc. 
[675] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 

terms  of  history  :  a  battle  of  spiritual  forces  which  later 
ages  have  proved  and  are  still  proving  to  have  been 
accurately  prophesied. 

"Two  Empires,"  says  Bishop  Westcott,^  "two  social 
organizations,  designed  to  embrace  the  whole  world,  started 
together  in  the  first  century.  ...  In  principle,  in  mode  of 
action,  in  sanctions,  in  scope,  in  history  they  offer  an  abso- 
lute contrast.  .  .  .  The  history  of  the  Roman  Empire  is  from 
the  first  the  history  of  a  decline  and  fall  .  .  .  the  history 
of  the  Christian  Empire  is  from  the  first  the  history  of  a 
victorious  progress."  The  informing  spirit  of  the  first  is 
like  that  of  a  monstrous  beast,  set  on  and  inspired  by  Satan 
the  arch-enemy  of  mankind,  "the  dragon,  the  old  serpent" 
(Rev.  XX,  2  ;  cf.  Gen.  iii,  i  ;  Isa.  li,  9  A.V.),  whose  powers 
emanate  from  the  pit  of  all  corruption  and  foulness.  The 
informing  spirit  of  the  second  is  like  that  of  a  Lamb,  "as 
it  had  been  slain  "  (Rev.  v,  6),  who  at  the  throne  of  God 
"  prevailed  "  to  open  the  seven-sealed  book  of  destiny,  and 
who  as  "  the  root  and  the  offspring  of  David  "  works  out 
to  salvation  and  redemption  the  eternal  purpose  of  God 
(Rev.  xxii,  16).  Agencies  of  contrasted  nature,  demoniac 
and.  angelic,  employing  natural  forces  and  human  energies, 
carry  on  the  conflict  in  unseen  regions  ;  while  with  every 
new  onset  the  saints  are  exhorted  to  steadfastness  and 
courage,  and  the  celestial  hosts  raise  songs  of  joy.  So  the 
mighty  campaign  goes  on. 

The  culmination  of  it  all  is  typified  in  two  cities,  standing 
respectively  for  the  worldly  and  the  spiritual  capitals  of  the 
earth  :  the  licentious  and  despotic  city  named  Babylon  but 
unmistakably  identified  as  Rome  (Rev.  xvii,  9,  18),  over 
whose  downfall  a  song  like  the  old-time  taunt  songs  is 
raised  ^  (Rev.  xviii,  2-20 ;  cf .  Isa.  xiv,  4-20)  ;  and  the  holy 

^"Epistles  of  St.  John,"  p.  253.  Quoted  here  from  .Swete,  "The 
Apocalypse  of  St.  John,"  p.  Ixxxi. 

'^  For  the  taunt  song,  as  a  species  of  mashal,  see  above,  p.  69. 

[676] 


THE  RESURGENCE  OF  PROPHECY 

city  New  Jerusalem,  which  is  beheld  "  coming  down  out  of 
heaven  from  God,  made  ready  as  a  bride  adorned  for  her 
husband"  (Rev.  xxi,  2;  cf.  Isa.  Ixii,   1-5  ;  Ixv,   18,   19). 

Thus  as  a  purified  municipality,  a  perfected  social  organiza- 
»tion,  from  which  all  that  defiles  and  disintegrates  is  banished, 
this  culminating  vision  of  God's  great  purpose  leaves  us.  It 
is  the  summary  of  an  epic  portrayal  which,  with  all  its  wealth 
of  symbolic  imagery,  is  beyond  expression  sublime.  And  it 
lays  hold  on  the  deepest  elements  of  human  and  divine 
nature,  the  elements  which,  walking  in  the  light,  as  He  is 
in  the  light,  have  fellowship  one  with  another.  For  the 
perfected  city,  the  '"  Jerusalem  which  is  above,  is  free, 
which  is  the  mother  of  us  all."  ^ 

1  Gal.  iv,  26  (A.V.^ 


VETERI  ■  TESTAMENTO  •  NOVVM  •  LATET 
NOVO    TESTAMENTO    VETUS ■  PATET  • 


[677] 


INDEX 


[Titles  of  main  divisions,  chapters,  and  books  of  Scripture  are  in  small  capitals. 
For  these,  as  also  for  sections  of  considerable  scope,  the  page  references  denote 
their  extent.  The  multitude  of  details  within  these  sections  must,  for  the  most  part, 
be  confined  to  such  as  would  naturally  be  looked  for  alphabetically ;  for  the  rest, 
except  for  some  topics  made  important  by  this  treatment,  recourse  may  be  had  to 
the  numerous  sideheadings.] 


Abraham,  as  embodiment  of  racial 
faith,  31 

Absoluteness  of  Jesus'  words,  547 

Acts  of  the  Apostles,  604-607 

After  the  Reprieve  (Chap.  V), 
186-247 

Amos,  Book  of,  148-152 

Apocalypse  of  John  (=  Revela- 
tion of  John),  664-677 

Apocalyptic  elements  in  Old  Testa- 
ment prophets,  147,  527,667;  fore- 
gleams  and  reckonings  in  Daniel, 
512  ;  idea  of  ihe  new  order,  528  ; 
elements  inherited  in  New  Testa- 
ment, 656,  667 ;  warrant  in  the 
Revelation  of  John,  665-668 

Apostles,  the,  their  message,  583  ; 
their  fitting  work,  585  ;  Apostles, 
Acts  of  the,  604-607 

Apostolic  college,  the,  584 

Appendix,  to  Hebrew  canon  (Chron- 
icles), 517  ;  to  Jeremiah  in  modern 
versions  (Lamentations),  494 

Aptitude,  dominant  Hebrew  and 
Greek,  compared,  37 

Aramaic,  relation  to  Hebrew,  30 ; 
section  of,  in   Daniel,  282 

Assyrian  crisis  met  and  weathered 
in  Isaiah's  time,  179-185 

Awaking  of  the  Literary  Sense 
(Chap.  II),  77-96 


Balaam,  oracles  of,  1 21-123 

Baptism  by  John,  as  symbolic  act, 
532  ;  of  Jesus,  as  human  acqui- 
escence, 537 

Beloved  Disciple,  legacy  of  the, 
641-654 

Bethany,  miracle  at,  and  its  mean- 
ing. 574 

Bible,  what 's  in  the  name,  3 ;  as 
a  literature,  4-12;  as  a  library 
(canon),  12-21 ;  as  a  book,  21-24; 
as  common  to  Jews  and  Jesus,  523 

Biblical  movement,  rationale  of  the, 
22 

Birthday  of  Judaism,  381 

Book,  The  People  of  a  (Book  II), 
249-520 ;  found  in  the  Temple, 
220-22$ 

Burden  (=  oracle),  191,  note 

Canon,  meaning  of  the  term,  13; 
Old  Testament,  original  order  of 
the,  19;  order  as  varied  in  mod- 
ern versions,  519 

Canticles.    See  Song  of  Songs 

Captivity,  Chaldean,  its  motive  and 
stages,  254-256 

Centuries,  The  Formative  (Book 
I),  25-247 

Chaldean  captivity,  its  motive  and 
stages,  254-256 


[679] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 


Christ,  term  equivalent  to  Messiah, 
52S  ;  problem,  the,  and  its  solu- 
tion, 535,  536;  idea,  initiating  the, 

537-543 
Chronicles,  Books  of,  404-410; 

as  resume  of  Judaism,  516 
Classic,  what,  426 
Classics,  the  three  great,  432-482  ; 

the  five  little  (Megilloth),  482-510 
Collection   of   the   Biblical  literary 

works,  movement  for,  16 
CoLossiAXs,  Epistle  to  the,  630 
Coming  of  Christ,    idea  of,   528  f., 

590 

Confession,  the  great  (Peter's),  567 

Continuity  of  Isaiah  First  and  Sec- 
ond, 304-307 

Corinthians,  Epistles  to  the, 
624,  625 

Covenant,  mutual  relation  by,  53- 
55  ;  new,  prophesied  by  Jeremiah, 
240  f. 

Culminating  event  in  the  Revelation 
of  John,  675 

Cultus  literature,  the  later,  403-416 

Cyrus,  as  liberator  and  civilizer,  310 

Daniel,    Book    of,    278-300 ;    lit- 
erary vehicle  and  stimulus,  515; 
apocalyptic  foregleams  and  reck- 
onings in,  512-516 
Daughter  of  Zion  in  prophecy,  305 
David,  his  elegy  over  Saul  and  Jon- 
athan, 60  ;  his  lament  over  Abner, 
60 ;  his  last  words,  436 ;  his  part 
in  the  literary  awakening,  81 
Davidic  destiny  in  Israel,  324 ;  key- 
note in  Psalms,  441-444 
Day  of  Jehovah,  meaning  of,  208 
Dearth  of  learning  in  Jerusalem,  372 
Deborah,  Song  of,  40 ;   as  starting 

point,  5 
Deliverance,    keynote    of    Israel's 

history,  50 
Departure,    Jesus',    reckoning    on, 
571-576 

[68 


Deutero- Isaiah.   See  Second  Isaiah 
Deuteronomy,  Book  of  (as  found 

in  the  Temple),  222-228 
Dies  Iras,  prophets  of  the,  208-219 
Disciple  whom  Jesus  loved,  gospel 

source  conjectured  as  John,  596; 

otherwise,  641-651 
Divine  character,  Jesus'  utterances 

in,  558-562  ;  Jesus'  acts  in,  562- 

•565 

Ecclesiastes,  Book  of,  497-505 
Editorial  movement  in  Bible  com- 
pilation, 17,  374 
Edom,  prophets  against,  215,  note 
Elegy,    the,    as    verse    form,    67  ; 
David's,  over  Saul  and  Jonathan 
and  over  Abner,  60 
Elohim,  as  name  of  Deity,  48 
Elohistic  source  (E)  of  early  history, 

112 
EI  Shaddai,  primitive  name  of  Deity, 

48 
Emotion,    intensity   of,    in    Second 

Isaiah,  and  cause,  308 
End  of  the  era,  Jesus'  words  con- 
cerning the,  659-665 
Ephesians,  Epistle  to  the,  630 
Episodes  in  the  gospels,  596 
Epistle  form,  the,  and  its  uses,  613- 

615 
Epistles,  of  St.  Paul   {see  Letters) ; 

from  Jesus'  personal  circle,  638- 

640 
Esther,  Book  of,  505-510 
Event,  culminating,  in   Revelation, 
*  675 
Exile,  Literary  Fruits  of  the 

(Chap.  VI),  254-369 
Exodus   to   Deuteronomy  outlined, 

397 
Expectation  of  new  order  in  Jesus' 

time,  527 
EzEKiEL,  Book  of,  257-278 
Ezra,  scribe  and  scholar,  379-384 ; 

Book  of,  410-412 

^] 


INDEX 


Fact,  The  Literature  of  (Chap. 
X),  582-607 

Falsity,  human,  Jesus'  encounters 
with,  554-558 

Folk  tale,  the,  as  primitive  form,  70 

Form,  Hebrew  poetic,  65 

Formative  Centuries,  The  (Book 
I),  25-247;  general  outline  of,  27 

Fragments  and  remainders,  literary, 
58-64 

Frontier,  literary,  of  Old  Testa- 
ment, 510 

Fulfillment,  of  prophecy,  as  typical 
of  New  Testament,  22 ;  recog- 
nized, 589;  of  types  (Hebrews),  634 

Galatians,  Epistle  to  the,  625 
Genesis,  Book  of,  in  Biblical  story, 

395-397 
Germinating  time  of  gospel  growth, 

592 
God  Who  Is,  the,  as  self-named,  47 
Good  tidings  [cf.  Gospel),  309 
Gospel,  meaning  of  term,  583 ;  the 

fourth    (story    told    once    more), 

645-651 
Gospels,   synoptic,  growth   of   the, 

591-604;  as  completed,  598-603 
Great  confession,  the  (Peter's),  567  ; 

living  up  to  the,  569 
Greek,  language  of  New  Testament, 

29;  version  (LXX),  effect  of,  on 

Old  Testament  canon,  519 

Hakakkuk,  Book  of,  217-219 
Haggai,  Book  of,  341-344 
Hebrew,  meaning  of  name,  31 ;  lan- 
guage   in    Old    Testament,    29 ; 
Classics,    Treasury     of     the 
Choice  (Chap.  VIII),  426-520 
Hebrews,  Epistle  to  the,  634-636 
Herald,  the  prophetic  (John),  530 
Hexateuch,  391,  note 
Hezekiah,  as  royal  patron  of  litera- 
ture, 194-196;  men  of,  and  their 
proverbs,  202 


Historic  fiber  of  the  Bible,  5 
Historical    writing,    beginnings    of, 
104-119;   composition,  order  of, 
104 ;  situation  for  prophetic  move- 
ment, 135-137  ;  evolution  traced 
after  exile,  376 
History,  Hebrew  genius  for,  39 ;  as 
edited  in  exile,  378 ;  as  charged 
with    prophecy,    425;    as    back- 
ground of  John's  Revelation,  673 
Hosea,  Book  of,  152-156 
Human  genius  and  initiative  in  Bib- 
lical literature,  428 

Ideas,  inherited  fund  of,  in  Israel, 
46-56;  of  new  order  met  by 
Jesus,  528-530 

Imagination  quickened  by  apoca- 
lyptic writings,  657 

Isaiah  of  Jerusalem,  Book  of 
(Isa.  i-xxxix),  167-179;  First  and 
Second,  continuity  of,  304-307  ; 
why  discriminated,  302  ;  Second, 
Book  of  (Isa.  xl-lxvi),  300-337  ; 
mood  of  expression,  308 

Isaiah's  vision  of  destiny,  189-194 

Israel,  kingdom  of,  100 ;  literary 
situation  in,  103 

Jacob-Israel,  as  embodiment  of  racial 
character,  33 

James,  Epistle  of,  636-638 

Jashar,  quoted  book  of,  59 

Jehovah  (=:  Yahveh),  meaning  of 
name,  48 

Jehovistic  source  (J)  of  early  his- 
tory, II o  f. 

Jeremiah,  Book  of,  228-247 

Jesus,  as  center  of  New  Testament, 
526;  initiating  the  Christ-idea,  537- 
543;  his  ministry,  literary  element 
in,  543-544 ;  his  general  public 
utterances,  544-548  ;  his  teaching 
in  parables,  548-554;  his  encoun- 
ters with  human  falsity,  554-558  ; 
his  utterances  in  divine  character, 


[681] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 


558-562  ;  his  acts  in  divine  char- 
acter, 562-565  ;  bearing  witness 
to  the  truth,  565-581 

Jewish  mind  and  mood,  the,  385  ; 
ideas  transformed  to  Christian 
values,  625,  633 

Job,  Book  of,  463-482  ;  as  corre- 
late with  Proverbs  and  Ecclesi- 
astes,  503  f. 

Joel,  Book  of,  143-147 

John  the  Baptist,  his  ministry,  530- 
534 ;  a  prophet  and  more,  658 

John,  son  of  Zebedee,  as  putative 
source  of  fourth  gospel,  596,  642  ; 
Gospel  of  (the  story  told  once 
more),  645-651  ;  First  Epistle 
OF  (the  "  postscript  commenda- 
tory "),  651-654;  other  EPISTLES 
OF,  654;  Revelation  of,  664- 
667;  culminating  event  in,  675 

Jonah,  Book  of,  418-423 

Joshua's  apostrophe  to  sun  and 
moon,   59 

Josiah,  King,  and  the  book  of  the 
law,  221;  reign  and  death  of,  206 f. 

Judah,  kingdom  of,  loi  ;  literary 
situation  in,  103 

Judaism,  birthday  of,  381 

Jude,  Epistle  of,  640 

Kingdom  of  heaven,  prevalent  ideas 

of,  528,  551 ;  secret  of,  in  Jesus' 

parables,  551-553 
Kingdoms,  the  two,  one  people  in, 

98-104;  literary  situation  in,  102  f. 
Kings    of    Judah    after    Hezekiah, 

205 
K'thubim    (writings),    Hebrew  title 

of  third  division  of  canon,  426 

Lamech,  song  of,  65 
Lamentations,  Book  of,  494-496 
Land  of  the  Bible,  its  significance, 

8 ;  as  allotted  to  Israel,  42 
Language  of  the  Bible,  29 
Law,  Mosaic,  stages  of,  398 

[68 


Law-ordered  history  as  edited  in 
exile,  378 

Lazarus,  raising  of,  574 ;  suggested 
relation  to  fourth  gospel,  644 

Legalism  and  its  austerities,  385- 
414;  atmosphere  of,  387 

Legend,  the  semi-historic,  in  early 
history,  118  f.;  in  Daniel,  282  f. 

Letters  of  St.  Paul,  623-633  ;  of  the 
active  missionary  (first  period), 
623-628 ;  of  the  Roman  prisoner 
(second  period),  628-633 

Library  (=  canon),  the  Bible  as  a, 
12-21 

Literary  Fruits  of  the  Exile 
(Chap.  VI),  254-369 ;  Sense, 
Awaking  of  the  (Chap.  II), 
77-96;  element  in  Jesus'  ministry, 
543-565;  frontier,  on  the,  510; 
gifts  of  New  Testament  writers, 
611;  prophecy,  beginnings  of, 
119-122;  qualit}'  in  general,  10 

Literature  of  Fact,  The  (Chap. 
X),  582-607 ;  OF  Values,  The 
(Chap.  XI),  608-654 

Logia,  source-gospels  and,  594 

Logos,  literary  significance  of,  526, 
note 

Looking  Before  and  After 
(Chap.  Ill),  97-132 

Luke,  Gospel  of,  as  completed, 
602  f.;  as  author  of  the  gospel  and 
Acts,  602,  604  ;  as  companion  of 
St.  Paul,  606 

Lyric  strain,  the,  general  and  sacred, 
87-92 ;  poetry,  David's  relation 
to,  81-83;  artistry  in  Song  of 
Songs,  486  ff. 

Malachi,  Book  of,  362-369 
Manasseh,  King,  his  reign  and  char- 
acter, 205 
Manifesto  at  Nazareth,  Jesus',  540 
Mark,  as  primitive  gospel  source, 
597  ;   Gospel  of,  as  completed, 
598-600 

2] 


INDEX 


Mashal,  the,  as  a  literary  form,  68, 
95 ;  (proverb),  art  and  aim  of,  452  ; 
working  itself  free,  455-461 

Matthew,  as  personal  gospel 
source,  596;  Gospel  of,  as  com- 
pleted, 600-601 

Maturity  of  Christian  thought  in 
St.  Paul's  epistles,  630-633 

Megilloth,  the  five,  482-510 

Messenger,  the,   and  his  function, 

367.  530 

Messiah,  meaning  of  name,  528 

MicAH,  Book  of,  160-167 

Midrask,  Hebrew  term  for  exposi- 
tory literature,  407,  419;  in  New 
Testament  times, '523 

Ministry,  Jesus',  literary  element  in, 
543-565  ;  of  familiar  friendship, 
539  f.;  later  days  of,  565  ff.;  round- 
ing off  earthly,  577-581 

Miracles  of  Jesus  (acts  in  divine 
character),  562-565 

Miriam's  song  at  the  Red  Sea,  51 

Musical  and  literary  disposal  of 
Psalms,  444-447 

Mutual  relation  by  covenant,  53-56 

Mystery,  adopted  Christian  term, 633 

Myth,  the  prehistoric,  1 1 5 

Myth  and  legend,  treatment  of,  1 14- 
119 

Nahum,  Book  of,  212-214 
Narration,  Hebrew  genius  for,  71 
Nehemiah,  Book  of,  413,  414 
New  Testament,  relation  of,  to  Old, 

23 
Northern  kingdom  (Israel),  the,  100 ; 
prophecy  in, 147 

Obadiah,  Book  of,  214-216 
Older  literature,  treasures  from  the, 

under  Hezekiah,  196-204 
Oracle  (=  burden),  191,  note 
Oracles,     tribal     and     racial,     120; 

anonymous,  appended  to  Zecha- 

riah,  353-3^2 


Oral  beginnings  of  literature,  56 ; 
standard  of  narration,  71;  origin 
of  gospels,  583 

Order  of  Old  Testament,  as  histori- 
cal and  as  literary,  20 

Parable,  as  form  of  the  mashal,  68, 70 
Parables,  Jesus'  teaching  in,  548-554 
Paradox  in  Jesus'  words,  546 
Parallelism,  Hebrew  verse  unit,  65 
Parousia    of    Christ,    as    Christian 

belief,  590 
Paul,  St.    See  St.  Paul 
Pause  of  the  prophetic  movement, 
370 ;    between    the    Testaments, 
517-520 
Pentateuch,    as    continuous     story, 
108 ;    the    completed    and    pub- 
lished, 391-402;  question,  the,  392 
Pentecost  and  its  event,  588  f. 
People  of  a  Book  (Book  II),  249- 
520;    of  the  Way    (Book   III), 
521-677 
Personal    relation    with     Deity    as 
basis  of  Hebrew  religion  and  lit- 
erature, 54 ;  ascendancy  in  early 
literature,  -jt,  ;  values  in  third  sec- 
tion   of   canon,   429;    sources   of 
gospels,    595-597 ;    emotions    in 
epistles,  614 
Peter,  as  personal  gospel  source, 
595;    First    Epistle    of,    638; 
Second  Epistle  of,  639 
PhileiMON,  Epistle  to,  630 
Philippians,  Epistle  to  the,  630 
Pleroma   (fullness),   adopted    Chris- 
tian term,  632 
Post-exilic  men  of  letters,  373 
Postponement  of  doom  for  Judah, 

157-159 
Preliminary  Survey,  A,  3-24 
Pre-literary  times,  avails  and  deficits, 

72-76 
Pre-Mosaic  story,  394-397 
Presage    of    end    in   Jesus'   words, 

660-664 


[683] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 


Priestly  source  of  early  history  (P), 

"3 
Prophecy,  nature  of,  39,  note ; 
literary  beginnings  of,  1 19-123; 
THE  Stress  of  (Chap.  IV),  133- 
185;  subsidence  of,  352-369;  as 
edited  after  the  exile,  375  f-;  his- 
tory charged  with,  425;  Resur- 
gence   OF,    The    (Chap.    XII), 

655-677 

Prophetic  genius  in  Hebrew  mind, 
38;  order,  evolution  of  the,  123- 
129;  gifts,  grades  of,  125-127; 
masters  and  guilds,  1 29-1 31 ;  style 
and  response  to  occasion,  1 38- 1 43 

Prophet's  specific  function,  the, 
127-129 

Prophets,  sons  of  the,  131 

Proverb,  the,  art  and  aim  of,  452 

Proverbs,  compiling  of,  under 
Hezekiah,  202  ;  successive  de- 
posits of,  453  ;  Book  of,  85,  448- 
463;  as  correlate  with  Job  and 
Ecclesiastes,  503 

Psalms,  as  identified  with  David, 
82,  89 ;  with  historical  headings, 
90;  collecting  of,  under  Heze- 
kiah, 197  ;  The  Five  Books  of, 
432-447  ;  distribution  of,  43S ; 
Davidic  keynote  and  leading  idea 
of,  441-444  ;  musical  and  literary 
disposal  of,  444-447 

Puritan  Era,  The,  and  its  Lit- 
erature (Chap.  VII),  370-425; 
Puritan  spirit  in  outbreak,  380 ; 
reactions  against  and  alleviations 
of,  414-425 

Q  source  of  gospels,  597 

Racial  genius  of  the  Hebrews,  31  ; 
sentiment  in  Esther,  506  f. 

Reactions  against  Puritan  austerity, 
414-418 

Reality  within  symbol  in  the  Revela- 
tion of  John,  673 

[684 


Rebuilt   temple,    prophets    of    the, 

340-353 
Reestablishment,  literature  of,  337- 

369 
Refusal  and  resolve,  Jesus',  571-574 
Religion,     Semitic     and     Hebrew 

genius  for,  35  f. 
Remnant,  the  (under  Isaiah),   182, 

306 
Reprieve,  After  the  (Chap.  V), 

186-247 
Resurrection,  the,  as  basis  of  gos- 
pel, 584,  588 
Revelation  of  John,  The,  664- 

677 
Roman  prisoner  (St.  Paul),  letters 

of  the,  628-633 
Romans,  Epistle  to  the,  625 
Ruth,  Book  of,  417,  493 

.Sages,  the,  92 

vSaint  Paul,  as  orator  and  letter 
writer,  615-633;  the  man,  616- 
619;  the  orator,  620-622;  the 
letter  writer,  623-633 ;  letters  of 
first  period,  624-628 ;  letters  of 
second  period,  629-633 

Satan,  as  the  cynic  spirit  in  Job, 
470 

Scholarship  in  Chaldea  during  exile, 

373 

Scribes  and  Pharisees,  Jesus'  en- 
counter with,  557  f. 

Second  Isaiah,  as  finisher  of  the 
vision,  300-337  ;  mood  of  expres- 
sion in.  308 ;  relation  of,  to  First 
Isaiah,  167,  301;  continuity  with 
First  Isaiah,  304-307 

Selection,  movement  of,  in  Biblical 
literature,  18 

Self-consciousness,  national,  quick- 
ened in  .Solomon's  time,  78 

Semina  Litterarum  (Chap.  I), 
29-76 

Septuagint  version,  effect  of,  on 
the  Hebrew  canon,  431,  519 


INDEX 


Sermon  on  the  Mount,  as  a  typical 
discourse  of  Jesus,  544 

Servant  of  Jehovah,  as  a  communi- 
ty,3i5;  personal  original  of,  317- 
324 ;  solidarity  of  meaning  of, 
322 

Shams,  Jesus'  unearthing  of,  557 

Shepherds  as  cultural  leaders,  164, 
23S,  272  f. 

Simplicity  and  plainness  of  Jesus' 
words,  546 

Solomon's  relation  to  literature,  83- 
86;  song  (see  Song  of  Songs) 

Son  of  Man,  The  (Chap.  IX), 
526-581  ;  adopted  title  of  Jesus, 
541  f. ;  Son  of  God,  as  Jesus'  self- 
consciousness,  537  ;  as  revealed 
in  utterances  and  acts  in  divine 
character,  558-565 

Song,  the,  as  fundamental  literary 
form,  66;  of  Songs,  as  typical 
of  Solomon,  85,  88 ;  of  Songs, 
Book  of,  485-492 

Sons  of  the  prophets,  131 

Source  stories  of  early  literature, 
two  main  lines  (J,  E),  109-113; 
how  supplemented  (P),  113  f.; 
gospels  and  logia,   594-598 

Sources,  personal,  of  gospels,  595- 
597  ;  of  epistles,  612  f. 

Southern  kingdom  (Judah),  the, 
loi  ;  prophecy  in,  157-185 

Spiritual  illumination  at  Pentecost, 
588  f. 

Spoken  and  written  literature  dis- 
tinguished, 13-16 

Starting  point  in  Biblical  literature, 
5,  note 

Stress  of  Prophecy,  The  (Chap. 
IV),  133-185 

Subsidence  of  prophecy,  352-369 

Symbol  and  history  in  the  Revela- 
tion of  John,  668,  671 

Synoptic  gospels,  growth  of  the, 
591-598;  as  completed,  598- 
604 


Teaching,  the  later,  of  Jesus,  578  f. 
Temple,    the,    significance    of,    in 

Israelitish  state,  77 
Temptation  of  Jesus,  538  f. 
Thessalonians,  Epistles  to  the, 

624 
Threshing,  symbolic  use  of,  312 
Thziskiyah  (intuition),  term  peculiar 

to  Wisdom,  203,  461  f.,  479 
Timothy,  Epistles  to,  630 
Title  Son  of  Man,  as  adopted  by 

Jesus,  541  f. 
Titles  of  Psalms,  91,  444 
Titus,  Epistle  to,  630 
Transfiguration,  the,  571-573 
Transformation  of  Jewish  ideas  in 

St.  Paul's  epistles,  625-628 
Treasury  of  the  Choice  Hebrew 

Classics  (Chap.  VIII),  426-520 
Trito-Isaiah,  327 
Truth,  Jesus'  witness  to  the,  565- 

581 
Twin  prophets  in  Judah  (Isaiah  and 

Micah),  160 
Types,    fulfillment    of    (Hebrews), 

634-636 

Values,  The  Literature  of 
(Chap.  XI),  608-654;  main  lines 
of,  in  New  Testament  literature, 
609-61 1 

Verse,  Hebrew  unit  of,  65 

Vision,  broadened  sense  of  term, 
190  f.;  of  Isaiah  (Second),  302- 
337  ;  of  Nahum,  212;  of  Obadiah, 
214 

Visions  of  Zechariah,  346-350 

Vocal  setting  of  Song  of  Songs, 
490-492 

Wars  of  Jehovah,  lost  book  of  the, 

58 
Way,   the    Christian,   its    meaning, 

524  ;  The  People  of  the  (Book 

III),  521-677 
Wilderness  ordeal  of  Jesus,  538 


[685] 


GUIDEBOOK  TO  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE 


Wisdom  strain  of  literature,  the, 
92-96;  shaping  of  a  book  of,  in 
Proverbs,  449  ;  wave,  crest  of  the, 
461-463;  Job's  encounter  with, 
472-475;  from  above  (James), 
63^638 
Witness  to  the  truth,  Jesus',   565- 

581 
Witnesses,  call  of  Israel  to  be,  312 
Word,  the,  as  applied  to  Christ,  526 
World  mission  of  the  Hebrews,  34 
Writings,  name  of  the  third  section 
of  the  canon,  426 


Written    literature    compared   with 
spoken,  15;  records,  primitive,  15 

Yahveh    (=  Jehovah),    meaning   of 

name,  48 
Yithi-on,  wisdom  term  used  by  Ec- 

clesiastes,  499 

Zechariah,    Book    of,    344-352 ; 

anonymous  oracles  appended  to, 

353-362 
Zephaniah,  Book  of,  209-212 
Zion,  daughter  of,  in  prophecy,  305 


[686] 


Date  Due 


BS535  .G34 

A  guidebook  to  the  Biblical  literature, 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00011   3748 


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